Germany’s likely last Holocaust convict dies at 99

By AFP
April 08, 2025
Irmgard Furchner, a 96-year-old former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, is pictured at the beginning of her trial in a courtroom, in Itzehoe, Germany, October 19, 2021.—Reuters
Irmgard Furchner, a 96-year-old former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, is pictured at the beginning of her trial in a courtroom, in Itzehoe, Germany, October 19, 2021.—Reuters

BERLIN: A 99-year-old former Nazi camp secretary, who may be the last ever person to be convicted in Germany for crimes committed during the Holocaust, has died, a court said on Monday.

Irmgard Furchner was handed a two-year suspended sentence in 2022 for complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people at the Stutthof camp in what was occupied Poland. A spokeswoman for a court in the northern town of Itzehoe, where she stood trial, confirmed the death of Furchner, the first woman in decades to be prosecuted in Germany for Nazi-era crimes. Almost 80 years after the end of World War II, time is running out to bring to justice criminals linked to the Holocaust.