German Ursula Haverbeck speaks in a YouTube video denying Auschwitz served as a death camp in 2014. (screen capture: YouTube)
Ursula Haverbeck, a well-known historical revisionist, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for Holocaust denial by a German court.
Haverbeck, 88, was convicted by a court in Verden on the basis of numerous articles she had published in the local newspaper Stimme des Reiches, or “Voice of the Reich,” in which she denied that the Holocaust occurred. Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany.
According to the German press agency dpa, Haverbeck repeated her theories in her own closing statement in court on Monday, referring to an “Auschwitz lie” and saying that it was not an extermination camp but rather a work camp where no one was gassed to death.
Haverbeck said she would appeal the decision. Her lawyer, Wolfram Nahrath, asked that his client be acquitted.
Pope Francis walks towards the main entrance with the lettering ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work Sets You Free) at the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Oswiecim, Poland on July 29, 2016 (AFP PHOTO/FILIPPO MONTEFORTE)
The sentence follows a string of similar sentences against the repeat offender. In October, a court in Bad Oeynhausen sentenced Haverbeck to 11 months in jail for incitement to hate. In September, a court in Detmold sentenced her to eight months in prison. And last year, a court in Hamburg sentenced her to ten months in jail. According to dpa, she has appealed all of these decisions as well.
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Haverbeck, who has had ties with far-right extremist groups for decades, has been fined for Holocaust denial numerous times. Her late husband, Werner Georg Haverbeck, was a member of the Nazi Party who held high positions in the early years of the Hitler regime.
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