Racism and Hate Speech in Germany

I came across this news story today, and I think it raises some interesting questions about racism, xenophobia, censorship and hate speech.
(Forgive me if this isn’t the right place for this discussion; I’m posting it on a feminist space under the presumption of intersectionality, but that might be a stretch here.)
Holocaust deniers are, certainly, a truly ignorant group fueled by extreme deep-rooted racism. To simply deny or ignore the existence of one of the world’s worst, and easily the most infamous, genocides is irresposible at best, and to ignore it so quickly after it happened – in a time when many who fought in the war and suffered in the camps are still alive to tell their tales today – is incredibly dangerous and disrespectful. I don’t support Ernst Zundel or sympathize with him.
However, I was struck to learn that Holocaust denial is an actual crime in Germany. It’s not a crime that fits into the larger category of hate speech or inciting violence – it is a crime all its own. It is apparently illegal in Germany to say, “The Holocaust did not happen.”
I can certainly understand why Holocaust denial is a touchier subject in Germany than perhaps anywhere else on the planet (with the exception of maybe Poland). The German people want to disassociate themselves with this sort of person, and who can blame them? Contemporary Germany is nothing like the country that started one of the world’s most devastating wars back in the 30’s. They’ve done much to restore their international reputation. (And, it would even be unfair to categorize 30’s- and 40’s-era Germans as racists; the general population of Germany wasn’t aware, for the most part, of the atrocities being committed by its top government and military officials.) Still, when your country is the “bad guy” in the biggest war in centuries; when your people elected a man who is often cited as the ultimate embodiment of evil; when it all happened recently enough that many people alive today were people who saw Hitler’s rise to power and supported or even voted for him; with all of this in mind, you don’t exactly want to let that image of your country and your people linger, and you don’t want to give rise to a racist movement ever again.

As a complete outsider to Germany, I think the case is somewhat intriguing. In Canada, this man was convicted with “spreading false news” and the conviction was eventually overturned by free speech protections. He fleed Germany over 50 years ago, long before the days of the Internet and hate websites, and the article doesn’t mention what his crime consisted of in Germany. Was he distributing literature? Speaking out on street corners? Was he a television or radio personality? All we know is that his crime was Holocaust denial, which could have happened through any media or means of communication. In other words, what this man did, exactly, isn’t even newsworthy; the newsworthiness of this piece (which appeared in a Canadian publication) is in part the extradition and the release of the man from prison, but also in part the enforcement of a German law decades after the crime was committed, a time length in which many police agencies would have simply let the matter drop.
I don’t know anything about German law, but it’s clear that Holocaust denial is not taken lightly there. It’s also clear, I think, that the North American
concept of “free speech” is not a universal value; while it is surely a European value as well, I think there are interesting perceptions on what type of speech is considered “free.” Here in Canada, you’ll see far more curse words and sexual behaviour censored on television than you will in most European countries, for example, but the construction of hate speech is harder to define under our free speech protections.
Is this a particularly touchy subject since it involves Germany and the aftermath of the Holocaust? What is the true meaning behind this law against Holocaust denial in Germany – is it an example of good leadership and accepting responsibility for a tragedy by German lawmakers? Is it the suppression of free speech? Is it an attempt by the German government to put a race-blind image of its people forward, and if so, is that a form of ignorance in itself? What does this law accomplish or hinder?
I’d love to get a perspective on this from anyone who’s familiar with German law and culture.