99-year-old Woman Found Guilty of Aiding Mass Murder at Stutthof Concentration Camp
21 August 2023
Germany’s Federal Court of Justice on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a 99-year-old former secretary at the Stutthof concentration camp. The woman was found guilty of aiding and abetting the mass murder of more than 10,000 people between June 1943 and April 1945.
The court, sitting in the eastern city of Leipzig, dismissed an appeal against the verdict handed down by the Itzehoe Regional Court, to the north of Hamburg, in December 2022. The regional court had sentenced the woman to a two-year suspended juvenile sentence for aiding and abetting murder in 10,505 cases and attempted murder in five cases.
The defendant, identified under German privacy laws as Irmgard F, received a youth sentence as she was under 21 years old at the time the crimes were committed. Tuesday’s decision is now final.
This case is considered the likely last criminal trial addressing Nazi mass murders and marks the first time a civilian worker has been found guilty for crimes committed at the camps. Due to its historical significance, recordings of both the hearing and the announcement of the decision in Leipzig were made for Germany’s Federal Archives.
Irmgard F was employed as a typist in the commandant’s office of the Stutthof Nazi concentration camp near what was then the Free City of Danzig – now Gdańsk in Poland – when she was 18-19 years old. The court determined that through her work, she assisted camp officials in the systematic killing of inmates.
The Federal Court of Justice confirmed the Itzehoe Regional Court’s assessment that Irmgard F had provided assistance to the murders through her willingness to serve. The court noted that she had a view of the grounds and crematorium chimney from her workplace and was aware of the prisoners’ horrific conditions.
According to the Arolsen Archives documentation centre, approximately 110,000 people from 28 countries were imprisoned in the Stutthof concentration camp and its 39 subcamps between 1939 and 1945. Almost 65,000 did not survive, with most murdered in gas chambers.
This verdict reflects a shift in Germany’s approach to prosecuting Nazi-era crimes, moving beyond just camp management to include those in supporting roles. Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, welcomed the court’s decision, stating that it sends a clear message that Nazi crimes have no statute of limitations, legally or morally.
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