(JTA) — An 87-year-old German woman dubbed the “Nazi grandma” was sentenced to a second jail term in less than a year for Holocaust denial.
Ursula Haverbeck was sentenced Friday by a court in Detmold in northeastern Germany to eight months in jail on charges of sedition, the German Deutsche Welle news service reported.
Haverbeck claimed that Jews were never exterminated in Auschwitz. She reportedly made more offensive comments in the courtroom.
Haverbeck wrote a letter to Detmold’s mayor, Rainer Heller, saying it was “clearly recognizable” that Auschwitz was just a labor camp. She wrote her during the trial in a Detmold court of Reinhold Hanning, a former guard who served at the Auschwitz concentration camp and who was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of 170,000 people, mostly Jews, there.
She will appeal her jail sentence, Deutsche Welle reported.
In November, Haverbeck was sentenced by a court in Hamburg to 10 months in prison for Holocaust denial after saying on television that the Holocaust was “the biggest and most sustainable lie in history.” She made the statement to reporters outside the trial of former SS guard Oskar Groning, who was found guilty for his role in the murder of 300,000 at Auschwitz. She is currently free from prison as she appeals this sentence.
Haverbeck already has a criminal record, including two fines and a suspended sentence for sedition.
It is illegal in Germany to deny or downplay the Holocaust.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
