Trial of "Escaped" Nazi War Criminal to Begin in Itzehoe, Germany

October 18, 2021

Jerusalem-The trial of Irmgard Furchner, the secretary of Paul-Werner Hoppe, the commandant of the notorious Stutthof Nazi concentration camp near Gdansk, Poland, where 65,000 inmates were murdered, will begin tomorrow morning at 11 AM Israel time in Itzehoe, Germany, north of Hamburg.

Furchner, who served as Hoppe's secretary from June 1943 to April 1945, is charged with complicity in the murder of more than 11,000 inmates. Her trial was originally scheduled to open on September 30, but Furchner fled her home rather than face the charges. She was quickly apprehended by the police and incarcerated for several days. 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff assisted the prosecution by locating two dozen survivors of Stutthof, as well as individuals who lost first-degree relatives in the camp, who under German law can join the prosecution as co-plaintiffs.

Neo-Nazis have indicated that they plan to demonstrate on behalf of the "Rebel of Itzehoe" on the first day of the trial. 

Dr. Zuroff will be available for interviews and information today and tomorrow at:

Office: (02)563.1274/5

Cell phone: 050.721.4156

For additional information follow the Center on Facebook, or @simonwiesenthal and @EZuroff for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).