A 97-year-old woman has been convicted by a German court for being complicit in the murder of 10,500 people during her time as a concentration camp typist.

Irmgard Furchner was handed a two-year suspended sentence, making her the first woman to be convicted in Germany for a Nazi-era crime in decades.

As she was still a teenager when she worked at Stutthof Concentration Camp in Poland from June 1943 to April 1945, Furchner was tried before a youth chamber at a juvenile court.

Furchner refused to say anything for almost the entire trial, only speaking at its conclusion to say: “I’m sorry for what happened. I regret that I was in Stutthof at that time. That is all I can say.” 

The SS imprisoned over 100,000 innocent people at the camp, around 65,000 of whom were murdered through epidemics, forced labour and torture. 

Furchner’s trial began on September 30, 2021 and involved 40 days of court hearings, with some rescheduled due to covid restrictions.

It had to be briefly suspended, however, when the nonagenarian defendant escaped from her retirement home.

Furchner was eventually found by police on a street in Hamburg and returned to stand trial.

Some of the co-plaintiffs included survivors of the death camp, who gave chilling accounts of the suffering and mass murder that were part of daily life.

Some detainees were tricked by SS officers wearing white aprons and pretending to be camp doctors, who would line the prisoners up against the wall and pretend they were measuring their height before shooting them through a narrow slit.

Furchner worked from June 1943 to April 1945 as a civilian employee in the camp commandant's office. 

Through this work, she helped those running the death camp with the systematic murder of innocent prisoners. 

Fifteen co-plaintiffs sided with the prosecution’s demand for Furchner to be handed a sentence.

In a statement, Holocaust historian Dr Efraim Zuroff said: "Today's verdict is the best that could be achieved, given the fact that she was tried in a juvenile court since she was under the age of 21 during her service in the camp. 

"In view of Furchner's recent statement to the court that she 'regretted everything,' we were concerned that the court might accept her defense attorney's plea for an acquittal.”

Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: “This trial has showed once more that the passage of time is no barrier to justice when it comes to those involved in perpetrating the worst crimes mankind have ever seen.

"Stutthof was infamous for its cruelty and suffering, with Holocaust survivors calling it ‘hell on earth’.

"The testimony shared by survivors during this trial has been harrowing, and their bravery in reliving such horrific memories must be commended.

"While Furchner will keep her freedom – this was stolen from over 60,000 Jewish victims ruthlessly murdered by the Nazis at Stutthof.

"This trial is further proof – if needed - of the heinous crimes which took place during the Holocaust.”