By TERRENCE PETTY
Associated Press Writer
BONN, Germany (AP) — A leading figure in Germany’s radical-right
movement was convicted again Wednesday of insulting Jews by denying
the Holocaust happened. The verdict against Guenter Deckert in
Mannheim state court reconfirmed an earlier finding that was
overturned when an appeals court order a retrial. Judge Wolfgang
Mueller gave Deckert a one-year suspended sentence and fined him
$6,000, the same penalty imposed after his November 1992
conviction. That ruling was overturned March 15 by the Federal
Appeals Court, which said more proof was needed that Deckert
intended to slander Jews by insisting the Nazis did not kill 6
million Jews during World War II.
The contention, called the “Auschwitz Lie,” is propagated by
neo-Nazis across Europe and in the United States.
During the new trial, prosecutors delved more deeply into Deckert’s
background and extremist thoughts.
The case rested on a 1991 rally by his National-Democratic Party of
Germany, an anti-foreigner group with about 5,000 members. Deckert
appeared at the rally with Fred Leuchter, an American inventor of
execution devices who is idolized by neo-Nazis because he insists
Jews were not exterminated at death camps.
Leuchter, of Malden, Mass., repeated that message at the rally, and
his words were translated into German by Deckert, who told the
crowd he agreed with Leuchter.
“Deckert is an enemy of the federal constitution who has proven his
affinity to Nazi thoughts,” prosecutor Heiko Klein told the
Mannheim court. “Deckert understands that when he denies the
systematic mass murder of Jews during the Nazi dictatorship, he is
insulting Jews.”
The judge said Deckert and his kind “fan the flames” of
anti-Semitism. He convicted Deckert of inciting racial hatred,
defaming Jews and disparaging the memory of those who died in the
Holocaust.
Deckert told the court he “stands by everything he said” about the
Holocaust.
Last-Modified: 1994/06/25
AP 06/22/94 1324 Germany-Auschwitz Lie
Copyright, 1994. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
