The plane descended slowly over the German city of Hamburg. My last visit had been 20 years before, when I had faced the man who selected my mother for death in a mass grave in the suburbs of Riga in February 1942. That trial in the Hamburg court had lasted for months, but the worst of it was the day I confronted the man who had put his finger to my mother and said, "You accompany the transport with the old people." I was 14 at the time of my mother's death. Now, 50 years later, I sat in the plane and thought of the terrible fate that had befallen her, and the day I faced her murderer in Hamburg.

Now there is another trial against a man who would also like to destroy the Jewish people. It is the trial of one of the most influential neo-Nazis of recent decades, Gary "Gerhard" Lauck, an American from Lincoln, Nebraska, who for the last 20 years has printed Nazi propaganda and disseminated it among extremists in Germany -- where such material is illegal. Mr. Lauck heads the National Socialist German Workers Party Overseas Organization (known by its German acronym, NSDAP-AO), which was banned in Germany in 1974.

When I entered the Hamburg courthouse, hundreds of demonstrators from the left and right were picketing, shouting so loudly one could hardly hear. The carnival atmosphere contrasted sharply with my own quiet, burning, far-away thoughts.

Mr. Lauck, 43, is accused of being the main supplier of brochures, films and other propaganda material for German extremists. In America, the U.S. Constitution and its guarantee of free speech protect his activities. In Germany, his activities are illegal. He was arrested in Denmark last year on an international warrant and extradited to Germany to face charges of inciting racial hatred there.

Obsessively identifying with his hero, Mr. Lauck tries to resemble as well as emulate Adolf Hitler. He entered the courtroom with parted hair and a small moustache. As a Holocaust survivor, I was deeply distressed by the scene. I felt my stomach cramp and my chest flutter -- part disgust and part anger -- when I looked at this man who, if he could, would try to finish Hitler's work, to destroy the Jewish people.

He sat right in front of me. He yawned and smiled at his lawyer. He had two lawyers, one court-appointed, the other a high-priced lawyer paid by sources unknown, who always defends right-wing cases. Mr. Lauck smiled again, and the court proceeded to read the 30-count indictment, which took over two hours.

His attorney, Hans Otto Sieg, asked the judge to stop the proceedings on the grounds that the Danes were wrong to extradite Mr. Lauck. The judge rejected his argument, Mr. Lauck had fought Germany's attempt to have him extradited, but exhausted his appeals after the Danish Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that his anti-Semitic statements in his newspaper, "NS Kampfruf"("NS Battle Cry"), were an offense under Danish Law. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to Hamburg. If convicted, he faces five years in prison.

Mr. Lauck once said that Jews were treated too nicely in Nazi concentration camps. Now I, the survivor of five concentration camps, was sitting behind this hateful, arrogant man.

I thought of my murdered family, my mother, all the friends I lost during the war. How cruel and ironic to face this pathetic spectacle who tries to resemble Hitler and debases his life, while millions who loved and valued life were robbed of theirs. I felt an urge to give in to my own private sense of justice. But I know that the rule of law -- which for a time was another victim of the Nazis -- must be maintained if civilization is to survive such evil.

Germany's action to bring Gary Lauck to trial, to have him extradited to face justice in a democratic system's court, is profoundly important. It will show that Germany will not and does not allow hatemongers to operate without an accounting of the consequences. It is a small thing, perhaps, but it does make a difference.

Elliot Welles, Director of the ADL Task Force on Nazi War Criminals, recently covered the opening of the trial in Germany of U.S. neo-Nazi Gary Lauck.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.