London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

German Police Arrest 96-Year-Old Nazi Suspect Who Tried to Skip Court

German Police Arrest 96-Year-Old Nazi Suspect Who Tried to Skip Court

The woman, a former secretary in a concentration camp now facing more than 11,000 counts of accessory to murder, failed to show up for a court appearance on Thursday.
The 96-year-old woman, a former secretary in a concentration camp, was supposed to appear in court to face charges of being an accessory in the deaths of more than 11,000 people, in what may be one of the last Nazi trials in Germany.

But instead of taking a taxi from her assisted living home outside Hamburg to the nearby court, Irmgard Furchner, who was 18 when she started work in 1943 at the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland, headed instead for a nearby subway station, according to the court.

It was not immediately clear where Ms. Furchner, who had previously told journalists and the judge she didn’t want to be part of the trial, was heading, but she was soon apprehended by the police after the court reported her missing. The court, in the town of Itzehoe, said she was undergoing a medical investigation.

Ms. Furchner was indicted in February after a five-year investigation into her work as a secretary to the commander of the Stutthof camp, located near Gdansk, then known as Danzig, between June 1943 and April 1945. The indictment was part of an effort by German prosecutors over the past decade to hold lower-ranking people to account for their actions during the Holocaust.

But they have been racing against the clock to bring aging suspects to court. Last year, a Hamburg court convicted a 93-year-old who was a guard in the same concentration camp on 5,230 counts of being an accessory to murder.

Ms. Furchner had written to the judge to ask for a trial in absentia, which is not allowed under German law, and had received a warning that she faced legal consequences if she did not appear in court.

Ms. Furchner was scheduled to hear the charges against her on Thursday morning and get a chance to respond. But the court, which had been moved to a local warehouse to accommodate more spectators and media because of high interest in the case, was kept waiting before the judge ordered the police to find the woman and bring her in.

The court had previously determined that Ms. Furchner would not be able to sit through full days of the legal proceedings because of her advanced age, and had agreed to hold shorter sessions for her, although she was classified as being physically fit enough to stand trial.

The trial turns on the question of how much Ms. Furchner knew about the killings that went on in the camp where she worked. Ms. Furchner had acted as a witness in Nazi trials in postwar Germany, including in one that led to the conviction of the camp’s commander, Paul-Werner Hoppe, who was her direct boss.

The International Auschwitz Committee, a group founded by Auschwitz survivors, condemned the woman’s flight. Christoph Heubner, the group’s executive vice president, said, “This shows an incredible contempt for the rule of law and also for survivors.”

Her next scheduled court date is Oct. 19.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×