It went almost unnoticed by the public. The Regional court in Neubrandenburg managed to again delay the pending trial of the former SS medic Hubert Z. by cancelling the trial date on Monday 10 October 2016.

The cancellation has been attributed to appeals by the public prosecutor and joint plaintiffs. They are protesting against their exclusion from the court proceedings and are petitioning for the hearing to be held in front of an unbiased court. According to code of criminal procedure, it is no longer possible to set any further hearing dates within the framework of the current trial: the trial has to begin anew.

Commenting on this in Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee stated:

“It was t clear to all observers from the very start that the presiding judge was utterly opposed to any kind of trial concerning Auschwitz. His arrogant and malicious handling of the proceedings and his one-sided focus on the wellbeing and woes of the defendant, has virtually excluded the Auschwitz survivors from this trial and from the world of this court. Seldom has it been seen that a court itself has actually ridiculed the impartiality of justice with its rigorous and high-handed attitude and turned it into a laughing stock. Thus the Neubrandenburg Regional Court has managed to write a shameful chapter in the history of the German judiciary. Auschwitz survivors in many countries who have been following the work of this court are both aghast and outraged.”