Last concentration camp secretary Irmgard F. died at the age of 99-process ends!

Last concentration camp secretary Irmgard F. died at the age of 99-process ends!

Stutthof, Deutschland - Irmgard F., a former secretary of the Stutthof concentration camp, died at the age of 99. Her death, which took place on January 14, 2025, was confirmed on Monday by the public prosecutor's office and the district court Itzehoe, Schleswig-Holstein. The news of the death of the concentration camp secretary caused an international sensation and once again raises questions about the legal review of the Nazi crimes. In 2022 Irmgard F. was convicted of aid to mass murder in more than 10,000 cases and received a youth penalty of two years on probation, a decision that the Federal Court of Justice confirmed in August 2024 after rejecting its revision.

Irmgard F.'s professional career in the concentration camp started at the age of 18. From 1943 to 1945 she was responsible for the correspondence by the camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe and documented, among other things, the names of deported. Her judgment made it clear that her activity played a central role in the bureaucratic killing machine of the camp. The Federal Court of Justice found that it was not decisive whether F. was wearing a uniform; Her role as a "central interface" for the warehouse manager was formative for the processes in the warehouse. The judge and court were convinced that the cruelty in the camp were not hidden.

The process and its historical context

The trial against Irmgard F. was remarkable for several reasons. On the one hand, it may be one of the last cases against former employees of the concentration camps, since both victims and perpetrators are increasingly older. The course and the results of the process were accompanied by contemporary witnesses, including former inmates of Stutthof. Josef Salomonovič, a survivor of the camp, emphasized the importance of the process for future generations and recalled the illegality of the acts.

The legal dispute over Nazi crimes is not new and is part of the long-term review of the Holocaust, which began over 60 years ago with the Frankfurt Auschwitz process. According to Kerstin Freudiger's dissertation, which deals with the legal processing of Nazi crimes, a total of 142 judgments on the role of perpetrators and assistants were analyzed. Freudiger's investigation shows that the legal framework and the subjective theory of perpetrators of the 1950s significantly influenced the judgments. This topic is illuminated by the decision of the Federal Court of Justice in the case of Irmgard F.

ethical and social issues

The process of Irmgard F. led to intensive discussions about the ethical responsibility of the judiciary. The presiding judge concluded the verdict with a quote from Fritz Bauer, which emphasized the essential importance of a comprehensive and sincere review of the past. The company shows a growing interest in the legal process, which deals with the crimes of National Socialism, which is also evident in the court's decision to move into a larger meeting room in order to take into account the great viewer interest.