Why was a 99 year old woman put on trial for Nazi atrocities?

In The News

This week, a 99-year-old German woman, who worked in a Nazi-era concentration camp office in her late teens, was confirmed guilty of being an accessory to murder on more than 10,000 counts.

Irmgard Furchner worked as a secretary in the Stutthof concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland between June 1943 to April 1945, when she was aged 18 and 19. Up to 65,000 people are estimated to have died in the camp.

80 years later, Furchner is still alive – and facing the consequences of her involvement in the camp.

But what is the point of prosecuting Furchner, who was a teenager with little agency in those crimes?

And, with at least five similar cases looming in the coming years, why are these convictions happening now?

Today, on In the News, Irish Times Berlin correspondent Derek Scally discusses why this 99-year-old woman was put on trial and the implications of Germany’s belated wave of Nazi-era prosecutions.

Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon.

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