Canadian Holocaust denier on trial in Germany for 'incitement to hatred'

AJasper, Alta., womanwho denied the Holocaust in at least one videoposted on YouTubeis on trial at acriminal courthousein Munich.

Monika Schaefer, 59, and her 63-year-oldGerman-Canadian brother, Alfred Schaefer, who lives near Munich, are being tried together for Volksverhetzung, which officially translates in Englishfrom the German Criminal Code as "incitement to hatred," said court spokesperson Florian Gliwitzkyin an email to CBC News on Friday.

"Both are under suspicion, that they published video clips, in whichthey denied the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust during World War II," Gliwitzky said.

The siblings'trial began Monday this week and continued Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It is scheduled to continue July 12, 13 and 16.

If found guilty, the German sentence for the crime ranges froma fineup to five years in prison.

Imprisoned in Germany

MonikaSchaefer gained notoriety in July 2016after appearing in a YouTubevideo in which she described the Holocaust as the "biggest and most pernicious and persistent lie in all of history." Sheexpressed her viewthat six million Jewish people did not die at the hands of Nazi Germany.

At least one hate speech complaint was filed against her with the Alberta and Canadian human rights commissions.

B'naiBrith, a Canadian Jewish advocacy group, alerted an intermediary in Germany who then went to police about the video,saidAidanFishman, a director with theorganization. He said that when Schaefer visited the country, she would have been on their radar.

German freelance photojournalistAnne Wild, who contracts with organizations that monitor far-right organizations' activity,recalledMonikaSchaefer's arrest inJanuary at the trial of convicted German Holocaust denier, SylviaStolz.Since then,MonikaSchaefer has been imprisoned in Germany.

'An outrageous incident'

Wild, one of the accredited press representatives,attended the Schaefer siblings'trial in a low-level criminal court for three days this week. She said it wasthe first time she hasattended the trial of a foreigner for "incitement of hatred."

Wildsaid the duo had about 15 supporters showing up on a regular basis.

"There was an incident right at the beginning that was really sort of horrible," Wild said. "When Alfred Schaefer was brought into the room, andhe was joined by his sister who was brought in, he showed the Nazi salute three times in a row. This is really an outrageous incident in the courtroom.

"His sister, she was laughing at it, she was laughing."

• Hate speech complaint filed against Jasper woman for Holocaust denial video
• Alberta Holocaust denier reportedly arrested in Germany

Wild said Alfred Schaefer has been vocal throughout the trial so far, tellingthe court he appreciated sharing his views. Monika Schaefer has been quiet, only speaking when spoken to and smiling every so often at her supporters, she said.

Born inCanada of German heritage,MonikaSchaefer described herself on her Facebook page as a self-employed violin instructor. She ranfor the federalGreen PartyinAlberta's Yellowheadriding in 2006, 2008 and 2011. She was ousted from the party after controversy over the video.

Sparse media coverage

Wild said there were only three journalists, including herself, in the courtroom.But these type of trialsin Germany generally don't get a lot of media attention, Wild said.

"Some of them think that if you cover it too much, you willjust promote it. They don't want to promote it," she said. "It's sort of a mixture. We have to talk about it, but we don't want to talk too much about it."

While Wild said denying the Holocaust in public is rare in Germany, it is a criminal offence.

She photographed a June 30 protest against theimprisonment of Holocaust deniers.

"Still there's a community of several thousand people who are more or less openly convinced that the Holocaust is a lie," Wild said.

But "there is a big discussion in Germany about what is opinion and what is a crime," she added.

roberta.bell@cbc.ca

@roberta__bell