After more than a year of negotiations, a 97-year-old former concentration camp secretary is being pleaded in the Stutthof trial. It could be the last major trial of its kind.
Youth penalty demanded in the trial against former concentration camp secretary: In the trial against a 97-year-old former typist in the Stutthof concentration camp, the public prosecutor’s office demanded a sentence of two years on probation. Prosecutor Maxi Wantzen said Tuesday before the Itzehoe District Court that she was convinced that the accused was guilty of aiding and abetting more than 10,000 cases of insidious and gruesome murder. “This procedure is of outstanding historical importance,” said the prosecutor. It may be the last of its kind.
The defendant Irmgard F. worked from June 1943 to April 1945 at the age of 18 to 19 as a civilian employee in the headquarters of the concentration camp near Danzig. Because she was still so young at the time, the public prosecutor demanded that the woman be sentenced under juvenile criminal law. “There can be no just compensation for guilt and no reparation for Nazi injustice,” said Wantzen.
According to the prosecution, Irmgard F.’s paperwork ensured that the camp could be maintained. Due to her willingness to work, she was an important support for the camp commandant and his adjutants. The accused had never commented on the allegations against her in the process that had been going on for more than a year.
Before the pleading, the presiding judge of the criminal court, Dominik Groß, had rejected an application for the historical expert Stefan Hördler to be rejected. The defense attorney for the accused, Wolf Molkentin, had accused the expert of a lack of impartiality.
Large parts of the camp in view
Wantzen based her plea to a large extent on Hördler’s statements on the organization of concentration camps and the role of typists in the commandant’s offices. Irmgard F., as the commandant’s only secretary, should have known about the hostile conditions in the camp and about the murders. From her study on the first floor of the headquarters building, she was able to see large parts of the camp, including a place where new prisoners arrived and were selected. The court got an impression of the circumstances during an on-site visit to the memorial.
In addition, the accused saw and smelled the almost constant smoke from the burning of the corpses in the crematorium and on a pyre, Wantzen said. She thinks it is “completely unrealistic” that she missed it. According to Hördler, at least 300 prisoners in the camp were shot in the neck, almost 1,100 with gas and more than 9,000 from hostile conditions such as malnutrition.
Even if the accused did not enter the fenced-in camp: “In my view, that was not necessary in order to have knowledge of the mass murders.” She is convinced that Irmgard F. must have seen the poorly dressed and emaciated prisoners, especially in the winter of 1944/45.
Wantzen once again pointed out that earlier statements by the accused could not be used because they had been questioned as a witness at the time. From her point of view, it would have been good for the procedure if she had now described her view. But the prosecutor said it was the defendant’s right to remain silent about the allegations.
The trial will continue on November 29 with the pleadings of the co-plaintiffs.
Source: Stern
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