A West German court today reversed the conviction of a neo-Nazi activist who had been sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for distributing pamphlets alleging that the Holocaust never occurred.
The court, in Celle, Lower Saxony, ruled that denial of the Holocaust does not constitute an offense under West German law, although the judges conceded that such behavior was an assault on the honor of Jews. The ruling nullified the conviction of neo-Nazi Edgar Geiss by a lower court in the town of State.
Geiss gained notoriety as a Nazi propagandist on several occasions. He has appeared on television giving the Hitler salute. During the trial of Kurt Lichka, the World War II Gestapo chief in France, which took place in Cologne in January, 1980, Geiss distributed pamphlets claiming the Holocaust was a hoax. Lichka was tried for his role in the deportation of 70,000 French Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.
The Geiss case now reverts to the court In Stade which will have to decide whether his activities constituted on “insult” to Jews. But individual Jews would have to bring criminal charges against Geiss if he is to be tried again. There is an odd twist to the Geiss case. Some West German authorities claim he is an East German agent provocateur whose purpose is to portray West Germany as a country wracked by right wing extremism.
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