A UNIVERSITY of Essex professor has welcomed the conviction of a former secretary who worked for the commander of a Nazi concentration camp.

Irmgard Furchner, 97, has been convicted of complicity in the murders of more than 10,500 people.

Furchner was taken on as a teenaged shorthand typist at Stutthof and worked there from 1943 to 1945.

She was given a two-year suspended prison sentence after the judge agreed she was fully aware of what was going on at the camp.

Profesor Rainer Schulze, of the University of Essex, welcomed the decision on Tuesday, adding: “I am delighted.”Gazette: Lecturer - Professor Rainer Schulze presenting the Dora Love PrizeLecturer - Professor Rainer Schulze presenting the Dora Love Prize (Image: University of Essex)

He said: “It's not the actual sentence that is of the greatest importance here, but the fact that a German court delivered a guilty verdict.

“It shows that you cannot run away from these atrocities, and justice will catch up, no matter how late.

“This is incredibly important for the victims and their relatives.”

Some 65,000 people are believed to have died in terrible conditions at Stutthof, which is located near the modern-day Polish city of Gdansk.

Professor Schulze pointed to the story of Dora Love, a holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in Stutthof and later came to live in Colchester in the late 1960s.

He added: "In a week when we are reminded of the cruelty of the Nazi concentration camp at Stutthof, we remember Dora Love who survived Stutthof and then worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the attitudes which made the holocaust possible."

Gazette: Holocaust survivor - Dora LoveHolocaust survivor - Dora Love (Image: Newsquest)

In a tribute to Dora, the university established the Dora Love Prize in 2012 The annual competition asks students to develop projects connecting what they learn about the holocaust to the world around them.

It encourages them to take action against prejudice, discrimination, identity-based violence and genocide.

Speaking to the Gazette in July 2009, Dora said: “I have lived in various countries and places, but the longest I have ever lived in any one place has been Colchester.

“Hence my affection and great admiration for the University of Essex and for its history department.”