Judges release ex-Nazi camp secretary who skipped accessory to murder trial

A judicial officer looks at his watch prior to a trial against a 96-year-old former secretary for the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp at the court room in Itzehoe, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021. The woman who is charged of more than 11,000 counts of accessory to murder has not appeared and is wanted by warrant. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Pool)

A 96-year-old former secretary for the Stutthof concentration camp’s SS commander has been released from detention, five days after she was taken into custody for skipping the start of her trial in northern Germany.

The German woman was picked up by police on Thursday, a few hours after leaving her home in Hamburg in a taxi on the morning her trial was due to start on more than 11,000 counts of accessory to murder.