Searchlight has been reporting for several months on the increasing radicalisation of right-wing parties. Not just the obviously racist and neo-nazi right, but the constellation of parties and groups that are just outside the Conservative Party (and sometimes overlap with the Tory right).
The clearest example of this came a fortnight ago when David Kurten leader of the Heritage Party (which broke away from UKIP in 2020) publicly aligned himself with nazis mourning the death of Ursula Haverbeck, one of the world’s most notorious Holocaust deniers.
Cares nothing for the truth
Kurten wrote (wrongly) that Haverbeck had “died in prison in Germany under anti-free-speech laws for ‘Holocaust denial’.”
Note the scare quotes around ‘Holocaust denial’, implying that Kurten doesn’t believe that such a concept exists, just as he didn’t believe that the pandemic existed. He went on to call Haverbeck’s case “a grave injustice”.
Kurten clearly cares nothing for either political truth or historical truth. His first and most basic error is that Haverbeck died not in prison but in her own bed at home in Vlotho, Germany. She left prison four years ago after serving a two-year sentence.
They believed that by defying the law and getting sent to prison, they would stimulate the growth of a larger and more militant neo-nazi and Holocaust denial movement.
It’s true that Haverbeck has repeatedly been in court and given further prison sentences, but none of these had been enforced. And the reason she has been in court so many times is that she set out deliberately to break German law.
This was a tactic promoted by Haverbeck’s fellow nazis Ernst Zündel and Horst Mahler. They believed that by defying the law and getting sent to prison, they would stimulate the growth of a larger and more militant neo-nazi and Holocaust denial movement.
Skipping bail and fleeing
That’s why Horst Mahler, for example, responded to his prison sentence by writing an even more extreme antisemitic hate manifesto and having it smuggled out of his jail cell, then after his release skipping bail and fleeing to Hungary, knowing this would result in further prosecutions.
None of this amounts to “injustice”, let alone “grave injustice”. As with any other law in any democratic country, one can agree or disagree with whether particular acts should be criminalised. But once a law is on the statute book, there is nothing unfair about the criminal justice system setting out to punish someone who deliberately and repeatedly breaks the law.
Until the late 1960s it would have been perfectly legal for someone like David Kurten – whose father was Jamaican – to be abused in the street, or at school, or in his workplace, or denied employment or refused service in a bar or restaurant, solely because of his race.
As with any other law, those against inciting racial hatred or discriminating on grounds of race were debated in Parliament, and some people opposed them on free speech grounds. But no-one could in 2024 set out to break those laws by abusing Kurten repeatedly and grossly, then claim “injustice” if they were prosecuted.
A lifelong, dedicated nazi
Before setting out to defend Haverbeck, Kurten should have informed himself about just who she was.
Ursula Haverbeck was a lifelong, dedicated nazi. Her political activity was at first linked to her partner and eventual husband Werner Haverbeck, who served to the rank of Untersturmführer in Hitler’s SA and SS.
Werner Haverbeck joined what became the Hitler Youth in 1923, ten years before Hitler came to power, and first attempted to become a full member of the Nazi Party in 1926 even before he was old enough to be eligible. He joined the SA (the notorious stormtrooper section of the party) in 1928, and the SS in 1936.
Personal staff of Hitler’s deputy
At various times Haverbeck served on the personal staff of Hitler’s deputy führer Rudolf Hess, and in academic and propaganda branches of the Nazi Party.
Because Kurten is an idiot as well as being a far-right extremist, he accompanied his social media posts with a photo of a modern nazi in fancy dress (Cecily Amanda Forrell) under the mistaken impression that this was a photo of the young Haverbeck.
Had he bothered to do any research before looking for another online “free speech” bandwagon, Kurten would have discovered that the Holocaust denial scene is packed with both neo-nazis
But then accuracy has never been Kurten’s forte. He repeatedly spread disinformation and conspiracy theories during the pandemic, and under his leadership Heritage has become the most obsessively anti-vax of Britain’s far right parties.
Had he bothered to do any research before looking for another online “free speech” bandwagon, Kurten would have discovered that the Holocaust denial scene is packed with both neo-nazis and those who (like Haverbeck) are the original article.
Ernst Zündel, one of the world’s most prolific publishers of Holocaust denial literature, was already an active follower of the Canadian nazi Adrien Arcand, long before taking up fake history. Arcand proudly called himself the “Canadian Führer”.
David Irving, the best-known British holocaust denier, was a young supporter of Sir Oswald Mosley in the late 1950s and actively promoted racist causes as a student, before beginning a lifetime of acting as a nazi apologist with close connections to both Third Reich veterans and violent British extremists.
Anthony Hancock, the Brighton printer who produced Holocaust denial material for clients worldwide, was a second generation racist and fascist, as well as a criminal forger and fraudster. Another active Holocaust denier in Britain was Richard Edmonds, who spent almost fifty years as a leading official of nazi parties: first the NF, then the BNP, then the NF again.
Germar Rudolf, now 60, who is probably the most active Holocaust denier on today’s scene, was a student activist in several far-right groups before beginning his “research” into the Auschwitz gas chambers.
Manfred Roeder, one of the earliest German Holocaust deniers, was also leader of a nazi terrorist gang, convicted for his role in a group that firebombed asylum seekers’ homes, leading to two murders.
Pedro Varela, Spain’s most active Holocaust denier, has served several prison sentences and was also President of the most notorious Spanish nazi group CEDADE. He worked closely with one of the pioneers of Holocaust denial, the fugitive Belgian nazi Léon Degrelle who was a Standartenführer in the SS and a personal favourite of Adolf Hitler.
When David Kurten stands up for the “freedom” of Holocaust deniers he is standing up for some of the most active hatemongers in the world. Holocaust denial is a key part of neo-nazism and antisemitism. If Kurten doesn’t realise that, he is too stupid to be leading a political party. If he does realise it and doesn’t care, then he is a disgrace to British politics and should be treated as a dangerous extremist.
