Man who denied Holocaust at German concentration camp to face charges

Suspect, reportedly a supporter of the far-right AfD party, one of several to make remarks denying existence of gas chambers at Sachsenhausen

By Sam Sokol 13 August 2019, 2:19 pm 0 Edit

People enter the Sachsenhausen Nazi death camp through the gate with the inscription 'Arbeit macht frei' (work sets you free) for commemorations for the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the camp in Oranienburg, about 35 kilometer north of Berlin, April 23, 2017. (AP/Markus Schreiber)

Charges have been brought against a German man who allegedly disrupted a tour at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp with what one federal official called “anti-Semitic and historically untenable remarks.”

According to Deutsche Welle, the unnamed man visited the site last July and consistently interrupted a guided tour with Holocaust denial rhetoric.

The man was one of several people from Baden-Württemberg who also made remarks denying the Holocaust during the tour, but only he was charged.

Officials at the camp asked the group to leave after they denied the existence of gas chambers, Deutsche Welle reported.

The German broadcaster reported that the man, who is believed to be affiliated with the far-right AfD party, is being charged with hate speech and “disturbing the peace of the dead.”

Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany.

Located some 20 miles north of Berlin, Sachsenhausen was established in 1936 and stood at the center of a network of 61 satellite forced labor camps. According to Yad Vashem, the camp had a gas chamber but it was rarely used and many of those killed were shot to death, including 13,000-18,000 Soviet prisoners of war.

Jews, political prisoners, Gypsies and members of the LGBT community were all interned there. Yad Vashem estimated that some 200,000 prisoners passed through the camp and 30,000 people (not counting Soviet POWs) died there.

The camp was also the site of gruesome medical experiments.