The 96-year-old woman faces more than 11,000 charges of accessory to murder.
ADVERTISEMENTA former Nazi concentration camp secretary has appeared in court on Tuesday to face thousands of war crime charges.
The 96-year-old defendant, Irmgard Furchner, is accused of more than 11,000 counts of accessory to murder.
Furchner had gone on the run before the start of her trial last month but was later picked up by police and placed in detention for several days.
She is accused of crimes committed under the Stutthof concentration camp’s SS commander in Nazi Germany during World War II.
Prosecutors alleged that Furchner "aided and abetted those in charge of the camp in the systematic killing of those imprisoned there".
The defendant allegedly served as a stenographer and typist in the camp commandant’s office between June 1943 and April 1945.
Prosecutors say that 65,000 prisoners perished during the Second World War at the camp, which is now located near the Polish city of Gdansk.
Furchner was brought to the courtroom in Itzehoe, near Hamburg, in a wheelchair to formally hear the indictment on Tuesday.
The defendant did not respond to the allegations levelled against her and the trial is scheduled to continue on October 26.
Furchner is being tried in juvenile court in northern Germany because she was under 21 at the time of the alleged crimes.
The trial is the latest in a series of cases as Germany continues to search for former Nazi criminals who are still alive.