Vaccination and Zyklon B

Der Standard, January 26, 2023 (Opinion)

German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000142916743/impfen-und-zyklon-b

In Salzburg, an anti-vaccination activist was acquitted of trivializing Nazism

by Hans Rauscher

A jury in Salzburg has now acquitted a man who had diligently participated in the Corona denier - propaganda and - according to the indictment - trivialized the Holocaust. The jury did not consider the following actions of the 40-year-old occupational therapist to be a violation of the Nazi Prohibition Act:

The defendant, who also campaigned for the anti-vaccination party MFG, held a patch in the shape of a Jewish star with "unvaccinated" in front of the camera. With this, according to the indictment, he equated the opponents of vaccination with the persecuted Jews. He also posted a portrait of Adolf Hitler on Telegram with the caption, "Hitler never killed anyone himself. They were all just people doing their job." To this, one posted: "Read Leuchter's report: Hitler and the Nazis did not own gas chambers. Zyklon B was used for disinfection."

That sort of thing clearly falls under denial of Nazi crimes for anyone familiar with history - and for any expert witness in previous trials. Yet the defendant did not remove the verbatims and also posted the question of fact deniers of all kinds: "One may not question the mainstream?"

One may, the jury found. The verdict is final. For the time being, one can only note how conspicuously often Corona “blabbering,” conspiracy theories and Nazi trivialization appear in the same brains. (Hans Rauscher, 26.1.2023)