Who Is 'Nazi Grandma'? Holocaust Denier Ursula Haverbeck Goes To Prison After Absconding

An 89-year-old woman, who was dubbed “Nazi Oma” by the German media, meaning “Nazi grandma,” for denying the Holocaust, was arrested Monday and placed in prison. She was due to begin serving her two-year prison sentence May 2 but was absconding.

Ursula Haverbeck was sentenced in August 2017 for writing in a far-right German magazine that Auschwitz had been a work camp, instead of recognizing it as a facility where millions of Jews were killed under the orders of German dictator Adolf Hitler, New York Daily News reported. Haverbeck’s late husband Werner Georg Haverbeck was an enthusiastic Nazi party member before and during the Second World War.

Despite the fact that Holocaust denial is considered a criminal offense in Germany, punishable up to five years in prison, Ursula continued to preach her beliefs over the years. Last year was the first time she was convicted of the crime, Independent reported.

She voiced public support for former Nazi concentration camp guards, co-founded a presently-banned right-wing “education centre” and in 2014, lodged a police complaint against the Central Council of Jews in Germany, accusing them of “persecution of innocent people” who denied the Holocaust.

After she was caught on camera claiming “the Holocaust is the biggest and most sustainable lie in history,” when she participated in a protest outside the trial of former SS guard Oskar Groening, the bookkeeper of Auschwitz, in April 2015, she was arrested and sentenced to 10 months in prison in November of the same year.

During her trial, at the time, she remained firm on her claim that Auschwitz’s status as a death camp was “only a belief,” even challenging the Hamburg court to prove otherwise.

Magistrate Bjoern Joensson, who presided over the court at the trial, said: “It is pointless holding a debate with someone who can't accept any facts. Neither do I have to prove to you that the world is round. It was, the magistrate added, “Deplorable that this woman, who is still so active given her age, uses her energy to spread such hair-raising nonsense.”

Following the sentencing, Ursula faced two more sentences in January 2016 and October 2017 respectively for further action of denying the Holocaust.

After extended appeals and partial suspension of her sentences, the court finally ordered Ursula to serve a two-year sentence starting May. She lost her appeal against her August 2017 sentence in February.

When she did not turn up at the prison, authorities visited her house in Vlotho, central Germany, to discover mail piling up at her doorstep, indicating she had fled.

"After the convict failed to report to the relevant penal institution within the deadline, prosecutors in Verden on May 4, 2018, issued an order to execute the sentence and have charged police with its implementation," prosecutors said, Deutsche Welle reported.

International Auschwitz Committee said that search for Ursula should be conducted “with high pressure.” After nearly a week of searching, Ursula was apprehended by the police and put in prison.