Sylvia Stolz

Sylvia Stolz (born August 16, 1963) is a German convicted Holocaust denier and former lawyer. Denial of the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany.[1]

Ernst Zündel and Stolz trials

Stolz was a member of the defense team of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, who was tried in March 2006 for distributing antisemitic literature, including Holocaust denial material, via a website.[2] Stolz disrupted Zündel's initial trial and was barred from the courtroom because of her behavior. She had said the judges deserved the death penalty for "offering succour to the enemy" and had signed a legal document "Heil Hitler".[1][3] In her view, Germany has been under a "foreign occupation which has portrayed Adolf Hitler as a devil for 60 years, but that is not true."[4] After ignoring the bar, Stolz had to be physically removed from the court.[2] During the March 2006 trial she called the Holocaust "the biggest lie in world history".[3] She also defended Holocaust denier Horst Mahler.[5]

Zündel was eventually convicted in February 2007, and served a five-year term of imprisonment. Stolz was convicted in January 2008 of the same, and additional offenses, and sentenced to a 3½-year prison term. She was also banned from practicing law for five years.[3][6]

Since 2011

Stolz was released from Aichach Prison on 13 April 2011.

In 2012 she was invited by Ivo Sasek, the founder of the Anti-Zensur-Koalition (AZK) (Anti-Censorship Coalition),[7] as a guest speaker at the AZK's 8th conference held at Chur, Graubünden, Switzerland, where she spoke on 24 November 2012. In January 2013, Daniel Kettiger, a Bernese lawyer, filed a criminal complaint with the Graubünden Prosecutor's Office against both Stolz and Sasek. He accused Stolz of violating Swiss race law, Art. 261bis of the Swiss Criminal Code,[8] in that she stated that the Holocaust has never been proved by a court of law, that findings on the location of the crime, method of murder, number killed, time period of crime, perpetrators, bodies or evidence of murder are lacking as is finding as fact that there was Nazi intention to kill Jews. Sasek was accused of failing to act as a responsible moderator.[9][10]

On February 25, 2015, Stolz was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment by a court in Munich for the speech she delivered in 2012.[11] On February 15, 2018, the sentence was reduced to 18 months, time served to be reckoned from May 23, 2019, the date of arrest.

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References
  1. "German Neo-Nazi Lawyer Gets Prison". Intelligence Report (Summer 2008). United States: Southern Poverty Law Center. 20 May 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  2. "Holocaust denier in Germany sentenced to five years in prison", New York Times (International Herald Tribune), February 15, 2007
  3. "German Neo-Nazi Lawyer Sentenced for Denying Holocaust", dw (Germany), January 14, 2008
  4. Harry de Quetteville "There's nothing 'neo' about this Nazi" Telegraph.com (blog), January 15, 2008
  5. https://web.archive.org/web/20071103121227/http://www.netzeitung.de/deutschland/798250.html
  6. "Holocaust Denier's Lawyer Gets Prison", The Huffington Post (Associated Press), January 14, 2008
  7. http://www.anti-zensur.info
  8. http://www.admin.ch/ch/e/rs/311_0/a261bis.html
  9. Strafanzeige gegen Stolz und Sasek Die Südostschweiz, 17.01.2013
  10. Stolz und Sasek in den Mühlen der Justiz Die Südostschweiz, 18.01.2013
  11. "German ex-lawyer jailed for Holocaust denial - again", Ha'aretz (Associated Press), 25 February 2015


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