Wilhelm Stäglich
| Wilhelm Stäglich | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 November 1916 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | April 5, 2006 (aged 89) |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | army officer, judge, author, historian, Holocaust denier |
Wilhelm Stäglich (11 November 1916 – 5 April 2006) was a World War II army officer, later a financial judge in Hamburg, and a prominent Holocaust denier.
Born November 11, 1916, he studied law and political science at the University of Rostock and the University of Göttingen, from where he received a doctorate in law (Dr. jur.) in 1951. For years he served as a Finance Court judge in Hamburg. He was the author of numerous articles on legal and historical subjects. During the Second World War he served from mid-July to mid-September 1944 as an Ordonnanzoffizier (orderly officer) on the staff of an anti-aircraft detachment stationed near the Auschwitz camp. As part of his duties, he maintained contact with the SS camp command, and had unlimited access to the Auschwitz main camp, where the command was headquartered.
In 1974 a disciplinary hearing was conducted against Stäglich, then a financial judge, owing to his membership of the far-right NPD party and his incessant publications in far-right magazines; the result was a forced early retirement with a reduced pension for five years.
In 1979 the Tübingen-based Grabert Verlag published Stäglich's book Der Auschwitz-Mythos - Legende oder Wirklichkeit (The Auschwitz Myth - Legend or Reality), in which he denied the existence of gas chambers in the Nazi concentration camps and death camps, and claimed that all documents relating to the Holocaust were forgeries. As early as 1980 this book was seized nationwide on the order of the state court of Stuttgart, and in 1982 it was placed on a list of materials that may not be distributed to young readers, following a decision by Germany's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons. The decision to confiscate the book was upheld by the Federal Court of Justice in 1983. Following this, the University of Göttingen instituted proceedings against Stäglich in order to formally disaccredit the doctoral degree he had received there in 1951, ironically on the basis of a law promulgated during the Hitler era.
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