Last week a court in Munich found the Reichsbürger siblings Alfred and Monika Schaefer guilty of incitement and sentenced both to prison, although Monika was released for time served.
Der 63-jährige Antisemit aus Tutzing am Starnberger See verbreitete Ende vergangener Woche vor dem Münchner Landgericht eineinhalb Tage lang sein krudes und menschenverachtendes Weltbild. Er bestritt nicht, zahlreiche rechtsextreme Videos produziert zu haben, in denen er gegen Flüchtlinge und Juden hetzt und den Holocaust leugnet - er ist sogar stolz darauf. Der "Reichsbürger" nannte die Ermordung von sechs Millionen Juden durch die Nazis die "größte Lüge der Geschichte".
Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany - something the many fans of Alfred and Monika decry as a infringement of free speech. The Web site wir-sind-Monika.com denounced the court proceedings as a yet "another one of the machinations and plans of the Jews." The brother and sister will join the "Nazi Grandmother" Ursula Haverbeck as martyrs for "the cause".
Does the threat of imprisonment curtail Holocaust denial? Or does it inflame anti-Semitism and embolden the Reichsbürger and neo-Nazis?
If anyone should have a view on this subject it would be the American historian Deborah Lipstadt, who spent years of her life defending herself against libel charges brought by the notorious revisionist historian and Holocaust denier David Iriving. In an interview this week in Der Spiegel Professor Lipstadt was asked how does one defeat the deniers without giving them more importance?
Lipstadt: It may surprise you, but I am against laws prohibiting the denial of the Holocaust. I understand very well why there is such a law in Germany and in Austria and in Poland. But I believe in freedom of expression. If anyone doubts the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, he should be able to say that.
DER SPIEGEL: You think it's OK to just let people claim that 9/11 never happened, or that it was some Jewish-controlled conspiracy?
Lipstadt: That's the price of freedom of speech. I find it more dangerous to let politicians choose what can and cannot be said. Just think of the U.S. at the moment and imagine President Trump and the new Supreme Court defining what you still can say! The media does have a special responsibility here.
And they do not have to spread such conspiracy lies. They can show that such claims are nonsense and entirely made up.
I recommend the 2016 feature film Denial about the Lipstadt-Irving libel trial in London (available in German as Verleugnung).
Comments