A former federal Green party candidate has been convicted in Germany of inciting hatred by publishing videos that denied the Holocaust.
Monika Schaefer of Jasper, Alta., was in Germany visiting family when she was arrested in January on charges of “incitement of the people.”
B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish service organization, said she has been sentenced to 10 months.
“We commend the German justice system for effectively dealing with a blatant manifestation of anti-Semitism,” Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada, said Friday in a release.
“Holocaust denial is once again on the rise, but this important court decision should help deter others from engaging in racist and hateful rhetoric.”
Schaefer ran unsuccessfully for the Green party in Alberta’s Yellowhead riding in 2006, 2008 and 2011. The party rejected her candidacy in 2015.
The following year she appeared in a YouTube video denying the Holocaust, which prompted the Green party to publicly condemn her views.
In the 2016 video Schaefer called the Holocaust the most “pernicious and persistent lie in all of history” and described concentration camps as “work camps” that did not have gas chambers.
The Holocaust is one of the most documented atrocities of the 20th century. The Nazi regime murdered about six million Jewish people and targeted other groups including the Roma, people with disabilities and gay people.
Germany has strict laws against anti-Semitism and hate propaganda.
Mostyn said Monika Schaefer’s brother, Alfred Schaefer, received a sentence of three years and two months on similar charges.
“B’nai Brith will aggressively continue to combat anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and all forms of bigotry and racism,” Mostyn said.
The Canadian Press
