Furchner worked between 1943 and 1945 in the German Stutthof concentration camp, near the Polish city of Gdańsk. The elderly woman was eighteen years old when she started working as a secretary in the camp. As a typist, she wrote down the execution orders dictated to her by a camp commander.
Furchner tried to flee at the start of the trial last year. She had ordered a taxi to a subway station in the morning, but the police eventually caught her. German prosecutors are now demanding a two-year suspended prison sentence. “Her position was essential in the camp system,” said prosecutor Maxi Wantzen. Thanks to her, the camp was able to continue to function, according to Wantzen’s statement.
It is one of the latest convictions in a series of lawsuits filed by Germany against war criminals. In practice, very old convicts rarely go to jail because of poor health or premature death.