Germany Former concentration camp secretary Irmgard F. is dead
Former concentration camp secretary Irmgard F., convicted of aiding and abetting mass murder, is dead. She died on January 14 at the age of 99, said a spokesperson for the Itzehoe public prosecutor's office in northern Germany. Several media outlets had previously reported on her death.
07.04.2025, 17:19
SDA
On December 20, 2022, the Itzehoe district court had sentenced F. to a suspended juvenile sentence of two years for aiding and abetting murder in 10,505 cases and attempted murder in five cases. The Federal Court of Justice, Germany's highest civil and criminal court, confirmed the verdict on August 20 last year.
In autumn 2021, the start of the trial against F. had been delayed because she had fled from her retirement home to Hamburg before the first hearing. The court had the then 96-year-old remanded in custody for five days.
Desk work as an accessory
Irmgard F. was employed as a typist in the commandant's office of the concentration camp near Danzig between June 1943 and April 1945 when she was between 18 and 19 years old. 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 was accused of killing prisoners in the hostile conditions of 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 subcamps between 1939 and 1945. Almost 65,000 did not survive.
F. knew about what was happening in the camp
Through her work, she had assisted those in charge of the concentration camp in the systematic killing of prisoners. Supporting activities could also be legally regarded as aiding and abetting murder. Irmgard F. had aided and abetted both physically and mentally through her willingness to serve, the Federal Court of Justice declared.
Based on the findings of the Itzehoe Regional Court (Schleswig-Holstein), the federal judges assumed that Irmgard F. knew exactly what was happening in the camp. Accordingly, she looked over part of the grounds from her workplace, saw the chimney of the crematorium and knew about the miserable condition of the prisoners.
No neutral work as a secretary
The secretary had also recognized from the beginning of her work that the main perpetrators around camp commander Hoppe were acting criminally. Through her loyal service, she had shown solidarity with them, so that her actions were no longer neutral.
