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Trial against Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck: "I consider this trial to be highly questionable"

2020-11-18T06:34:16.357Z


Ursula Haverbeck has just been released from custody - the notorious agitator is already on trial again: In Berlin it's about a video in which the elderly woman denies the mass murder of six million Jews.


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Ursula Haverbeck in court in Berlin: "I did not deny anything"

Photo: 

FILIP SINGER / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

It has been almost two weeks since Ursula Haverbeck was able to leave the prison in Bielefeld after two and a half years.

Haverbeck is 92 years old.

She was convicted of sedition.

And because of sedition, she is now on trial again this Tuesday.

This time before the district court of Berlin-Tiergarten.

Again she faces a prison sentence.

The woman with the gray bun is a notorious Holocaust denier.

She is widowed, has no children and does not want to tell the judge how high her pension is.

"I'm not saying that." When asked what job she did, she said she was involved in "political adult education."

First she and her husband dealt with "environmental" issues, then "noticed more and more how much German legal life was being destroyed."

A few of her admirers gather in front of the hall that day.

A woman hands Haverbeck a yellow rose and kisses her on the cheek.

In the 2019 European elections, she ran for the Nazi party "Dierechte".

According to the indictment, Haverbeck played down Nazi crimes and denied the Holocaust in an interview with a YouTuber who calls himself “Volkslehrer”.

In the video, she called for “to work to ensure that this lie, this burden of debt” that lies on the German people, is “lifted”.

The video was published on the Internet in March 2018.

In it Haverbeck denies the mass murder of six million Jews, organized industrially by the National Socialists.

When the Second World War began, Haverbeck was ten years old.

The judge plays the approximately 15-minute video in the hall.

You can hear Haverbeck saying that she never received an answer to the question "where the six million Jews were gassed".

Haverbeck stands at the judge's table, looks at the judge's laptop and looks happy.

"Yes, I would like to express myself"

The 92-year-old comes from North Rhine-Westphalia and says in court that this is the tenth trial against her.

Two further convictions for sedition - once for six months, once for ten months - are not yet final.

It cannot be said that the convictions impressed the old woman.

On the contrary.

She even uses the courtroom as a stage for her propaganda.

The judge instructs the accused that she does not have to comment on the allegations.

"Yes, I would like to express myself," says Haverbeck.

Then she repeats the remarks for which she is accused.

“I want to know where the six million are supposed to have been gassed.

Now please say: Where did that take place? ”Neither the prosecutor nor the judge could present the Holocaust as fact.

"You never experienced that." Auschwitz was not an extermination camp and Zyklon B was "not at all suitable for mass murder," says Haverbeck.

"Extremely hard of hearing"

You just ask questions, says Haverbeck: "I have not denied anything." Haverbeck sees herself as a fighter for freedom of expression - that has been her staging for years - and as a victim.

"I think this procedure is highly questionable," she explains.

Next to her is her defense attorney, Wolfram Nahrath.

The lawyer was once the “federal leader” of the now banned right-wing extremist “Wiking Jugend”, like his father and grandfather before.

On that day, Nahrath calls the six million murdered Jews a "number of victims worldwide".

Before the indictment was read out, Nahrath had applied for the trial to be suspended.

"In the course of the detention" Haverbeck had "become extremely hard of hearing".

He says to the judge: "She cannot understand you."

"I don't understand a word," confirms his client.

But the judge is prepared.

Haverbeck gets headphones and the judge speaks into a microphone from now on.

"Yes, now I understand you," says Haverbeck.

On this day, Nahrath will make several more motions to suspend or terminate the proceedings.

Without success.

The judge had only scheduled a trial day.

But Nahrath does not want to plead yet.

Instead, he makes a new application.

The "Volkslehrer" should testify as a witness.

He will state that he has not informed his client that the conversation will be published.

And Haverbeck did not agree to publication either.

The YouTuber called »Volkslehrer« was already in the courthouse that day.

He was filming in front of the hall.

A court spokeswoman asked him to show her his filming permit and press ID.

The press pass seemed dubious to her.

Nikolai N., a former elementary school teacher in Berlin, protested loudly.

He was also on trial for sedition.

Because of his interview with Haverbeck, the public prosecutor's office is also investigating him.

Justice officials told Nikolai N. to leave the court.

When he did not obey the invitation, they took him by the arms, Nikolai N. let himself fall, shouted "Schikane" - and was carried out.

His camera kept rolling.

On December 4th he is to be heard as a witness.

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Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2020-11-18

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