Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel. Photo: DPA. 
 
 A long-time right-wing extremist has been sentenced to prison for incitement of hatred for statements she made denying the Holocaust. 
 
 Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel was sentenced to ten months in prison by a Hamburg court, convicted of incitement of hatred for statements she made denying the Holocaust, German media reported on Thursday. 
 
 The Holocaust is "only a belief," said Haverbeck-Wetzel, dubbed Nazi-Oma (Nazi grandma) by the media on Friday. 
 
 She already has a criminal record with two fines and a suspended sentence for sedition. 
 
 Haverbeck-Wetzel was dragged back into court after she went on television in April to declare to NDR reporters that "the Holocaust is the biggest and most sustainable lie in history". 
 
 Unapologetic for her comment, she had told the court cheerfully, "yes I said that indeed", according to media reports. 
 
 In Germany, the crime of incitement of hatred refers to actions that encourage hatred or violence towards a group of people because of their religion, race or ethnic background. It also punishes any individual who publicly "approves of, denies or downplays" the actions of the Nazis which violated international law by up to five years in prison. 
 
 More than 1 million people, most of them European Jews, died at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp between 1940 and 1945 before Soviet forces liberated the site. 
 
 Haverbeck-Wetzel was indicted in Hamburg because that is the headquarters of NDR, according to the Hamburger Abendblatt. 
 
 The 87-year-old is a known member of the extreme right-wing scene in Germany, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In 2004 she helped to found an association that helped people who were "persecuted" for denying the Holocaust. 
 
 Haverbeck-Wetzel was also once chair of the "Collegium Humanum," which started as an environmental group, but became a right-wing extremist organization and was banned by the German government. 
 
 During her own trial, members of the nationalistic, right-wing National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) supported Haverbeck-Wetzel with applause and flowers, according to the Hamburger Abendblatt. 
 
 Haverbeck-Wetzel has said she will appeal the verdict. ||||| A German court in Hamburg has sentenced an 87-year-old woman, well known as a Neo-Nazi activist, to 10 months imprisonment for incitement of hatred. She is a Holocaust denier. 
 
 Auschwitz was not a death camp, it was just a work camp, Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel told a Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) journalist during the trial of the former SS serviceman Oskar Gröning, accused of being involved in Auschwitz mass killings. 
 
 READ MORE: 91yo German woman accused of assisting deaths of 260,000 Jews in WWII 
 
 Later, Haverbeck-Wetzel repeated her statement in an interview to the ARD TV-Channel. She added that the published Auschwitz commandant’s orders prove her position. 
 
 “The Holocaust is the biggest and most sustainable lie in history,” Haverbeck-Wetzel said in April, the Local reports. It is “only a belief,” she said on Friday during the trial. 
 
 German legislation regards as incitement of hatred not only encouraging hatred or violence to a particular group of people, but also approving of, denying or downplaying Nazi crimes. So Haverbeck-Wetzel faced trial for her statements. 
 
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 “Yes I said that indeed!” Haverbeck-Wetzel told the judge at the trial. She also asked whether the German constitution was still a legal basis for the court, referring to freedom of expression. 
 
 “We have no personal experience. You know about it (Auschwitz) only through the grapevine – like me. Who told you that this is really true?” she said asking the judge to prove that the Holocaust really took place. 
 
 “I don’t have to prove to you that the Earth is round,” the judge answered. 
 
 Finally, the court decided to sentence Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel to 10 months imprisonment without the right of parole. 
 
 “I will never accept this verdict!” Haverbeck-Wetzel said at the court. 
 
 Incitement of hatred carries a potential sentence of up to five years in Germany, but the verdict is not so harsh because of the age of the convicted. The court, however, decided to sentence Haverbeck-Wetzel to a jail time because it wasn’t the first case against her. 
 
 Haverbeck-Wetzel is a known right-wing extremist who has a criminal record, two fines and a suspended sentence for sedition. 
 
 She was once a head of the “Collegium Humanum” which was founded as an environment organization, but later transformed into a right-wing extremist group. Haverbeck-Wetzel, moreover, helped to establish an association aimed at helping people persecuted for denying the Holocaust. 
 
 The Holocaust was the genocide of the Jews in the Third Reich, which killed approximately six million. Almost 1.5 million people – most of them Jews – were killed in the Auschwitz death camp between 1940 and 1945. On January, 27, 1945 Soviet troops captured Auschwitz and saved about 7,500 prisoners, who had not been evacuated by the Nazis. ||||| An 87-year-old grandmother was sentenced to 10 months in jail for Holocaust denial after insisting that Auschwitz was "not historically proven" to be a death camp. 
 
 That is "only a belief," Ursula Haverbeck told a court in Hamburg, causing German media to dub her "Nazi-Oma" (Nazi grandma) on Friday. 
 
 Haverbeck is a notorious extremist who was once chairwoman of a far-Right training centre shut down in 2008 for spreading Nazi propaganda. 
 
 She already has a criminal record with two fines and a suspended sentence for sedition. 
 
 Haverbeck was dragged back into court after she went on television in April to declare that "the Holocaust is the biggest and most sustainable lie in history". 
 
 Unapologetic for her comment, she had told the court cheerfully, "yes I said that indeed", according to media reports. 
 
 Haverbeck went as far as to challenge the court in the northern city of Hamburg to prove that Auschwitz was a death camp, prompting ruling magistrate Bjoern Joensson to say "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," he added. 
 
 Issuing his ruling on Thursday, Mr Joensson said: "It is deplorable that this woman, who is still so active given her age, uses her energy to spread such hair-raising nonsense. 
 
 "She is a lost cause," he added. 
 
 Nevertheless, the recalcitrant Holocaust denier is not without supporters. 
 
 At the trial anti-far-right activists had arrived in force to occupy most benches in the courtroom, Haverbeck's supporters were shouting outside: "Let us in." 
 
 She left the courtroom to applause. 
 
 "Of course" they won't accept this sentence, the Tageszeitung newspaper quoted her as saying. 
 
 Some 1.1 million people, most of them European Jews, perished between 1940 and 1945 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp before it was liberated by Soviet forces.
– Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel says there's no proof that Auschwitz was a death camp and that that's "only a belief." Those thoughts spoken in a Hamburg court Thursday—and others, such as the "Holocaust is the biggest and most sustainable lie in history" comment she made on TV in April——are what just earned her a 10-month stay in a German prison, the Local reports. Her crime: inciting hatred. The 87-year-old extremist who's been dubbed "Nazi-Oma" ("Nazi Grandma") has been steadfast for years in her conviction that the Holocaust is a sham. And Haverbeck-Wetzel, who used to run an ultra-conservative center that was shut down for spreading Nazi propaganda, has her share of supporters: The Telegraph notes that far-right activists filled the courtroom's benches, with others outside demanding to be let in. They would have seen quite a spectacle. Haverbeck-Wetzel tried to goad the court into proving to her Auschwitz was a death camp, saying, per RT.com, "You know about it [Auschwitz] only through the grapevine—like me." This spurred Bjoern Joensson, the presiding judge, to retort, "It is pointless holding a debate with someone who can't accept any facts," adding: "Neither do I have to prove to you that the world is round." In Germany, the crime of incitement of hatred includes anyone who publicly "approves of, denies, or downplays" what the Nazis did during the Holocaust. "I will never accept this verdict!" Haverbeck-Wetzel told the court. (A California middle school decided to nix a Holocaust-denial lesson plan.)