German court sentences 93-year-old Holocaust denier to a year behind bars, she may appeal

A Berlin court has sentenced the infamous 93-year-old Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck to 12 months in prison after rejecting her appeals against two previous sentences for Holocaust denial. According to the Associated Press, she can also appeal this most recent verdict. 

If she does so, the case would then have to be dealt with by the Berlin Court of Appeal. A district court judge in the German capital said Haverbeck has denied the Holocaust and showed no signs of remorse or change of mindset. 

The court dealt with two different trials that handed down unconditional sentences against Haverbeck in the first instance. She then appealed against those decisions from the district court in Berlin. 

In 2017, the court sentenced the North Rhine-Westphalia widow to half a year behind bars for declaring that the Holocaust never happened at an event in the Lichtenrade district of Berlin. At the end of 2020, the court handed down a one-year sentence against here after she was convicted of denying the Holocaust again in an Internet interview.

The district court upheld both judgments on 13 April 2022. According to the presiding judge, the total sentence of one year is proportionate to the seriousness of the offense and to Haverbeck's guilt. 

It was not possible to impose a suspended sentence - despite the defendant's advanced age - because she showed no insight into the criminal nature of her behavior and no change of attitude even during the main appeal proceedings, the judge explained. Haverbeck has repeatedly claimed that the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, run by the Nazis, was "just a labor camp". 

It is an established historical fact that at least 1.1 million Jewish people and other victims were murdered at Auschwitz. Haverbeck has paid several fines in the past and served at least 30 months in prison for other offenses.