Hamburg - Prison sentence for 95-year-old Holocaust denier
Again and again, she denied that massive killings of people took place in Auschwitz: The Hamburg Regional Court sentenced the 95-year-old Ursula Haverbeck to a total sentence of one year and four months for incitement. "She deliberately lied," said the presiding judge in the appeal proceedings against the defendant. "She knew that what she said was being spread." The judgment is not yet legally binding.
In the total sentence, according to the Hamburg Regional Court, there is a Berlin judgment from 2022 in another case. At that time, Haverbeck was sentenced to one year in prison, but she has not yet begun serving her sentence. Four months of the sentence imposed in Hamburg are also considered to have already been served due to prolonged procedural delays. According to the judgments in Berlin and Hamburg, Haverbeck should therefore continue to serve a total of one year in prison.
The prosecution had accused the woman living in North Rhine-Westphalia of incitement in two cases. Haverbeck had told journalists on the sidelines of the Lüneburg trial against the former SS man Oskar Gröning on April 21, 2015, that Auschwitz was not an extermination, but a labor camp. In a television interview with the NDR magazine "Panorama," she also denied that there was a mass killing of people there. Historians estimate that the Nazis killed at least 1.1 million people in Auschwitz-Birkenau alone.
"She is unteachable"
The popular figure in right-wing circles, Haverbeck, was sentenced to ten months in prison without probation by the Hamburg District Court in 2015. She had appealed against this. The trial in Hamburg, however, did not take place until nine years later.
"She is unteachable," the prosecutor had said in her plea about the woman. The prosecution had demanded a slightly higher sentence of one year and six months. The defense argued for acquittal. It was not proven that her client wanted the interviews to be made public, one of her arguments was.
During the fully packed audience chamber, supporters of the defendant disrupted the trial despite all warnings several times with loud interruptions. They applauded loudly as the defendant repeated some of her theses in a very long, so-called final statement. When some supporters left the room as a sign of protest, the presiding judge called out to them: "Leave, I don't need such spectators."
For years, criminal courts have had to deal with statements from notorious Holocaust denier Haverbeck. She was first sentenced in 2004. She received a fine. The latest penalties were without probation. Haverbeck has already served more than two years in prison for Holocaust denial.
- Ursula Haverbeck, a prominent figure in right-wing circles, was sentenced to two separate prison terms by criminal courts for Holocaust denial, with one being a year and four months in Hamburg and another one year in Berlin, although she has yet to begin serving the Berlin sentence.
- The Hamburg Regional Court delivered the sentence after confirming that Haverbeck intentionally lied about the mass killings in Auschwitz, a claim which historians estimate led to the deaths of at least 1.1 million people in Auschwitz-Birkenau alone.
- Haverbeck made these denying statements in interviews, including telling journalists that Auschwitz was not an extermination camp, but a labor camp, and denying the mass killing of people in Auschwitz in a television interview.
- During the trial, Haverbeck's supporters frequently disrupted the proceedings with loud interruptions, leading to pleas from the presiding judge for order in the audience chamber.
- The initial sentence of ten months in prison without probation was handed down by the Hamburg District Court in 2015, a sentence Haverbeck had appealed against.
- The prosecutor argued that Haverbeck was "unteachable" and demanded a slightly higher sentence of one year and six months, while the defense argued for acquittal, asserting that it was not proven that Haverbeck intended for the interviews to be made public.
- Despite the numerous court cases and penalties, Haverbeck has continued to make statements that incite hatred and deny the Holocaust, which historians overwhelmingly agree took place during National Socialism in Germany, culminating in the tragic events of the Holocaust.
- The sentences imposed on Haverbeck demonstrate the importance of upholding truth and justice in the face of extremism and incitement to hatred, reinforcing the need for vigilance in addressing such issues in history and society today.
