Hass comment to Auschwitz: Neumünsteraner in court!

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A trial recently caused a stir in Neumünster. A 31-year-old man from the north German city was held responsible for a stark hate comment on Instagram. The allegations refer to his statement to a picture that shows access to the last gas chamber in Auschwitz. The comment, which caused outrage in public, was: "The system should be put into operation again, but not only for Jews." This statement marks a particularly severe case of sedition because it refers to a particularly sensitive historical context.

The investigators managed to quickly identify the author of the comment, although this was only active under one nickname. This was possible through the central registration office for criminal content on the Internet of the Federal Criminal Police Office, which was only introduced in 2022, which pursues suspicious statements online. The public prosecutor rated the case as a clear sedition and demanded a direct trial. This was an accelerated procedure.

The process course

Before the district court, the accused had to ask several boring questions from the judge. "What did you think?" Was one of the first questions that hardly left any scope for excuses. The accused answered vague, "was stupid of me. I thought nothing else." However, this simple apology was not enough to relieve it. The judge, visibly dissatisfied with the answer, confronted him with the seriousness of the historical combination of his words. He even cited a plea from the public prosecutor at the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial to clarify how serious the Situation was.

In addition to the moral and factual severity of his statements, the judge also added who should start the gas chambers again according to his ideas. The defendant looked overwhelmed by the questions and murmured that he was not a Nazi and that did not refuse to reflect. The prosecutor also found that the platform on which the statement was made should not be a point of contact for such thoughts.

The judgment

despite the insight of the accused, who admitted that his statement came out of rashness, the judge decided to impose imprisonment. It was possible to reduce the judgment to a fine, but the judge emphasized the need for a clear signal against the anonymity on the Internet that tempt people to spread such hate messages.

The judgment provides for a minimum penalty of three months, but it was suspended for probation. The defendant must also pay 1000 euros to the "Aktion Sühnenzeichen" organization by the end of the year. This association deals with the crimes of National Socialism and organizes various programs for education and reconciliation, including in Europe and Israel.

The judgment is currently not yet final, and it remains to be seen whether the defendant will object to the decision. Another process course could influence the perspective of legal processing of hate comments on the Internet and a further step in combating intollerators. Society observes these developments with great attention, since the balance between freedom of expression and responsibility in the digital space is increasingly in focus. For a detailed analysis of the background and the legal implications of this case, reference should be made to details, as reported on www.shz.de .