99-year-old woman convicted of Nazi crimes dies in Germany

A German court on Monday confirmed the death of 99-year-old Irmgard Furchner, a former Nazi concentration camp secretary convicted in 2022 for her involvement in Holocaust crimes.

Furchner was one of the last people to be tried in Germany for complicity in the atrocities committed during World War II. Furchner was given a two-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of facilitating the systematic murder of more than 10,000 people at the Stutthof camp, located in then-occupied Poland. She had appealed her conviction, but lost in 2024.

Her trial in Itzehoe had garnered particular attention as she was the first woman in several decades to be prosecuted in Germany for crimes during the Nazi era. The German justice system had tried her under juvenile law, as she was under 21 at the time of the events.

Between June 1943 and April 1945, Furchner held the position of personal secretary to commander Paul Werner Hoppe at Stutthof, where about 65,000 people, mainly Jews, perished. Her administrative role included managing the commander's dictation and correspondence. Her husband also served in the camp as a member of the SS. In September 2021, Furchner had attempted to flee at the start of her trial, escaping from her retirement home. She had managed to evade authorities for several hours before being found in Hamburg.