Arthur Greene
Unable to face going on trial for war crimes, a 96-year-old woman who worked as a secretary at a Nazi death camp went on the run the day it was set to begin.
But Irmgard Furchner’s great escape didn’t go exactly according to plan, and she was arrested by the cops just hours after absconding from her care home in Germany.
Furchner – nicknamed “the secretary of evil” by the German press – was due to stand trial on charges of assisting in the deaths of 11,412 prisoners at the Stutthof death camp during World War II.
But when it became clear she had skipped her trial, Judge Dominik Gross was forced to suspend the case and launch a manhunt for the slippery senior.
Judge Gross told the court that Furchner was last seen leaving her nursing home in a taxi that morning.
After a warrant had been issued for Furchner’s arrest, court spokesperson Frederike Milhoffer said, “She left her home early in the morning in a taxi in the direction of a metro station.”
But she didn’t get far. Milhoffer announced on the very same afternoon that Furchner had been caught.
Furchner worked as the secretary for the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943 and 1945.
Prosecutors argue that she was part of a team which facilitated the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
Up to 65,000 were killed at Stutthof, many of whom were murdered in gas chambers. But tens of thousands also died due to starvation, disease epidemics, over-work and forced “death marches”. Of those who died, around 28,000 were Jews.
Furchner’s lawyers argue, however, that she did not know of the atrocities being committed in the death camp.
After she went missing, it emerged that she had written a letter to the court refusing to turn up to her trial because she was requesting to be tried in absentia.
She wrote, “Due to my age and physical limitations I will not attend the court dates and ask the defence attorney to represent me.”
“I would like to spare myself these embarrassments and not make myself the mockery of humanity.”
Efraim Zuroff, an American-Israeli “Nazi hunter”, later tweeted, “Healthy enough to flee, healthy enough to go to jail!”
Image source: @alekosmarkellos
