Ursula Haverbeck verdict: Holocaust denial 'Nazi Grandma' gets 10 months in prison

A German court has sentenced an 87-year-old woman to ten months in prison for Holocaust denial. Ursula Haverbeck, dubbed the 'Nazi grandma' in the media, was handed the verdict by a Hamburg state court.

The case revolved around a television interview she gave in April, when commenting on the trial of former SS guard Oskar Groening. She claimed Auschwitz wasn't a death camp, before adding: "The Holocaust is the biggest and longer lasting lie in history."

During her own trial she was unapologetic and told the court there was no historical evidence Jews were exterminated at Auschwitz, challenging presiding judge Bjoern Joensson to prove her wrong. "It is pointless holding a debate with someone who can't accept any facts," was Joensson's reply, according to AFP. "Neither do I have to prove to you that the world is round".

Reading the verdict the judge described Haverbeck, who has a previous record for inciting hatred and known ties to extreme-right groups and associations, as "a lost cause", adding it was deplorable that a woman of her age would use her energies to "spread such hair-raising nonsense".

Haverbeck said she will appeal against the sentence. Groening, 94, was sentenced to four years behind bars in July for his role in the mass killing of hundreds of thousands of people at Auschwitz.

The former SS non-commissioned officer admitted to moral guilt over the holocaust and was found guilty of being an accomplice to the murder of 300,000 prisoners, mainly Hungarian Jews, who were deported and gassed at the infamous death camp between 16 May and 11 July 1944.