90-year-old Former Nazi Concentration Camp Secretary Prepares For Prosecution

Stutthof Concentration Camp. (Wikimedia Commons / Wisniowy)

JAKARTA - A former secretary at a Nazi concentration camp has been indicted by German prosecutors for involvement in several thousand deaths, opening the door to prosecution at future trials.

This is believed to be the first time in several years that a woman has been charged with Nazi wartime atrocities. Meanwhile, several men were also being chased by the authorities.

"The indictment sheet charges against the accused, who was still a teenager, with involvement in the murder of several thousand cases," said a statement from the prosecutor in Itzehoe, northwest Germany, reported Euronews.

"In another case, he was accused of being involved in an attempted murder," the statement continued.

The Ministry of Justice accused the woman, now around 90 years old, of committing crimes between June 1943 and April 1945 during World War II at the former Nazi Death Camp in Stutthof, about 40 kilometers from Gdansk, Poland.

Stutthof Concentration Camp. (Wikimedia Commons)

He is said to have provided assistance to those responsible for the systematic massacre of Jewish prisoners, Polish partisans and Soviet Russian prisoners of war in his post as stenographer and secretary of the camp commander.

"Because some of the inmates survived the ordeal at the camp, some actions should be legally considered attempted murder," explained the prosecutor.

There is no certainty whether this case will proceed to court, considering that the court must first decide whether this woman is worthy of trial given her advanced age. The name and legal age of the defendant have not been announced.

To note, in the last few years Germany has tried and convicted several former SS Nazi members, and expanded the investigation to include camp guards accused of involvement in the murder of prisoners.

The situation at the Stutthof Concentration Camp, 1939. (Wikimedia Commons)

In 2019, regional broadcaster NDR claimed there were 29 active cases in Germany of Nazi war crimes. Among them was a 94-year-old woman identified as Irmgard F, the former personal secretary of the Stutthof camp commander and who now lives in a nursing home north of Hamburg.

In July 2020, a court in Hamburg sentenced Bruno Dey, a 93-year-old concentration camp guard, to two years in prison for his involvement in thousands of murders in Stutthof.