A now 99-year-old woman managed the administrative work at a concentration camp during the Second World War.
Now the “secretary of death” is sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence in the highest federal court in Germany.
– This is not a person that large parts of Germany feel any sympathy for, says TV4’s foreign correspondent Jona Källgren in Nyhetsmorgon.
The German woman, who is now 99 years old, was as a teenager a secretary at the Stutthof concentration camp in northern Poland during the war.
In December 2022, she was given a lower sentence of two years’ probation for aiding and abetting the murder of 10,505 people, a sentence she appealed.
But now the sentence is determined by the highest federal court in the country, reports Der Spiegel.
Knew about everything
She is considered to have been fully aware of the mass murders that took place at the camp.
– According to the prosecutors, all administrative communication to the commander of this camp went through her. This means that if he ordered more gas, she was the one who carried it out, says TV4’s foreign reporter Jona Källgren and continues:
– She knew what the guards did, how many guards there were, how many came to the camp and how many survived. In addition, her workplace is said to have been by a window, which means that every day she could look out over the entire camp.
Ran away before trial
When she was due to appear in court for the first time again in September 2021, she slipped from her residence and disappeared for five days before being found.
She has since said in a short statement that she is sorry for what happened, but she has otherwise expressed no major remorse or guilt.
– This is not a person that large parts of Germany feel any sympathy for. This is a person who has really had difficulty showing the remorse that is required here in Germany, says Jona Källgren.
Thousands have never been brought to justice
Of the around 800,000 who are estimated to have been involved in the Holocaust machinery, only between 5,000 and 7,000 have been prosecuted, and several who have later been convicted have received lighter sentences.
The commander of the Stutthof camp, for example, received only three years in prison.
– Most (of those who were behind) are dead, but there are a few left and this woman was one of those whom the prosecutors said they had to prosecute, says Jona Källgren.
About six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.