It could have been the last criminal case to investigate the Nazi mass murders in Germany. Now there is a legally binding verdict against a concentration camp secretary.
Can a civilian secretary in a concentration camp also be complicit in the mass murder of Nazism? The Federal Court of Justice answered this question with a clear yes in a landmark decision in the case of a former typist at the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig.
The 5th Criminal Senate of the Federal Court of Justice in Leipzig rejected an appeal against a ruling by the Itzehoe Regional Court. The court had sentenced Irmgard F., now 99, to two years’ probation as a youth prisoner for aiding and abetting murder in 10,505 cases and attempted murder in five cases. This decision is now legally binding.
The case is considered to be possibly the last criminal proceedings to investigate the Nazi mass murders. For the first time, a civilian employee was held responsible. Due to the historical significance, records of both the oral hearing and the announcement of the decision in Leipzig were made for the Federal Archives.
Desk work as an aid
As a young 18- to 19-year-old woman, Irmgard F. worked as a stenographer in the concentration camp commandant’s office between June 1943 and April 1945. The courts are convinced that almost all of the camp’s correspondence passed through her desk. She was a close confidante of the camp commandant, Paul Werner Hoppe.
The secretary is accused of killing prisoners in the hostile conditions in the camp, during death transports and in a gas chamber. According to the Arolsen Archives Documentation Center, around 110,000 people from 28 countries were imprisoned in the Stutthof concentration camp and its 39 satellite camps between 1939 and 1945. Almost 65,000 did not survive.
Through her work, she helped those in charge of the concentration camp to systematically kill prisoners. Even supporting activities could legally be considered aiding and abetting murder. Through her willingness to serve, Irmgard F. provided both physical and psychological assistance, according to the BGH.
Defense had appealed
Irmgard F.’s defense team had filed an appeal. The Federal Court of Justice held oral proceedings on the matter at the end of July. Among other things, the lawyers questioned whether the woman could be proven to have acted intentionally. It had not been proven that she really knew what was going on in the camp. In addition, her work as a typist was not significantly different from her previous job in a bank. From her point of view, she had carried out neutral activities.
The federal judges, however, assumed, based on the findings of the Itzehoe Regional Court, that Irmgard F. knew very well what was happening in the camp. From her workplace, she looked out over part of the site, saw the crematorium chimney, and knew about the miserable condition of the prisoners.
No neutral work as a secretary
The secretary also recognized from the beginning of her work that the main perpetrators around camp commander Hoppe were acting criminally. Through her loyal service, she showed solidarity with them, so that her actions were no longer neutral.
Paul Werner Hoppe had already been convicted by the Bochum Regional Court in 1957 – also only for aiding and abetting the murder of just a few hundred people. This classification no longer seems understandable from today’s perspective, said presiding judge Gabriele Cirener. It is a result of decades of “misguided persecution” of Nazi perpetrators in Germany.
Late punishment of accomplices
In recent years, a number of former concentration camp employees have had to face trial at a very advanced age. For decades before that, the German judiciary had only prosecuted those who were part of the management of the concentration camps, who had themselves committed murder, or who had been particularly cruel, so-called excessive offenders.
A turning point was the trial of former guard John Demjanjuk, who was convicted in 2011 for his work at the Sobibor extermination camp in occupied Poland. In the meantime, even the general performance of duties in a camp where systematic mass murder clearly took place is being punished legally.
One of Irmgard F.’s defense attorneys, attorney Wolf Molkentin, said he viewed it as positive that the Federal Court of Justice had made a landmark ruling. His client had not come to Leipzig herself and had also remained mostly silent during the trial in Itzehoe. Only in a final word did she say that she regretted having been in Stutthof at that time.
Co-plaintiffs’ representatives assess the verdict positively
Lawyers for the remaining 23 elderly co-plaintiffs in the case expressed their satisfaction after the verdict was announced. Their client, who lives in Israel, will certainly be relieved and happy, said lawyer Christine Siegrot. “He is not an avenging angel. He was less and less concerned with the defendant personally, but rather with transparency and it was important to him that it be established what really happened in Stutthof.”
The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, also welcomed the decision. “The legal system has sent a clear message today: Even almost 80 years after the Shoah, we must not draw a line under the Nazi crimes. Murder does not expire – neither legally nor morally.”
Defense blog on the appeal Notice from the Federal Court of Justice dated 1 February 2024 Notice from the Federal Court of Justice dated 13 March 2024
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
