New trial of elderly Holocaust denier starts in Hamburg

DPA

Fri, June 7, 2024 at 12:23 PM EDT

The accused Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck sits in the district court at the start of her appeal proceedings. The 95-year-old, who is popular in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to ten months in prison without probation by the district court in 2015. The senior citizen appealed against this. In the trial before the district court, the public prosecutor’s office is accusing the woman from North Rhine-Westphalia of two counts of incitement of the people. Markus Scholz/dpa Pool/dpa

The trial of German Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck for inciting hatred began on Friday at the Hamburg District Court.

The 95-year-old, who is a prominent figure in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the Hamburg District Court on November 12, 2015. She appealed, and almost nine years later the case is once again before the courts.

The public prosecutor’s office in Hamburg has charged Haverbeck with two counts of incitement of the people.

On April 21, 2015, on the fringes of the trial of former SS member Oskar Gröning, Haverbeck is said to have told journalists that Auschwitz was not an extermination camp but a labour camp.

In a television interview with the broadcaster NDR she also denied that there had been a mass extermination of people there. These contributions were shown in the courtroom on the first day of the trial. Historians estimate the Nazis murdered at least 1.1 million people in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp alone.

“I have never denied the Holocaust,” Haverbeck said, claiming that she had merely asked questions. However the judge found that the comments in the TV reports were not questions, but statements.

She wanted to know if the accused still stood by her remarks. Haverbeck then repeated one of them.

Haverbeck has previously served more than two years in jail for Holocaust denial. In 2022, she was again sentenced to one year in prison without probation by a Berlin court for incitement of the people. The judgment is final, but that sentence has not yet been served.

A doctor accompanied Haverbeck, who was in a wheelchair and repeatedly complained about the “infirmities of old age.” “I think you’re really fit,” the judge told her.

The trial is due to continue on Wednesday.

The accused Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck sits in the district court at the start of her appeal proceedings. The 95-year-old, who is popular in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to ten months in prison without probation by the district court in 2015. The senior citizen appealed against this. In the trial before the district court, the public prosecutor’s office is accusing the woman from North Rhine-Westphalia of two counts of incitement of the people. Markus Scholz/dpa Pool/dpa

The accused Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck stands in the district court at the start of her appeal proceedings. The 95-year-old, who is popular in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to ten months in prison without probation by the district court in 2015. The senior citizen appealed against this. In the trial before the district court, the public prosecutor’s office is accusing the woman from North Rhine-Westphalia of two counts of incitement of the people. Markus Scholz/dpa Pool/dpa