German court upholds conviction of 99-year-old former Nazi camp secretary
Al JazeeraAug 22
Germany Upholds Conviction of Former Nazi Secretary
Image copyright: Pool/Pool/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
A German court has rejected the appeal of 99-year-old Irmgard Furchner for her role in the deaths of over 10K people as a secretary at the Nazi Stutthof concentration camp during World War II.
Last month, lawyers for Furchner — originally tried in a juvenile court because she was 18 and 19 during the time that the crimes took place — challenged whether Furchner was truly conscious of what was going on at the camp.
The Spin
Narrative A
While administrative employees like Furchner are less close to the crimes than high-ranking officials, they still knowingly participated in them. In this case, providing administrative assistance to mass murder counts as serving as an accessory to mass murder, and Furchner must be held responsible. This latest ruling is evidence that Germany's justice system is working as it should.
Narrative B
These types of trials are important to keeping the tragedy of the Holocaust in our collective memories — but they are few and far between. The number of guilty individuals taken before German courts is merely a drop in the bucket of people who committed atrocities on behalf of the Nazi regime. It's time to consider alternative and equally promising ways of dealing with unresolved Holocaust crimes.