Holocaust denier who wrote antisemitic songs has conviction upheld

Alison Chabloz was found guilty of posting 'grossly offensive' material online

Alison Chabloz leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court, London, on 25 May (PA)

A woman who wrote and performed antisemitic songs which mocked the Holocaust and claimed the gas chambers were a “proven hoax” has had her conviction upheld by the Crown Court.

Alison Chabloz was found guilty of posting "grossly offensive" material relating to three self-penned songs at Westminster Magistrates' Court last May.

The 55-year-old Swiss-British dual national, had uploaded a number of songs to YouTube including one which described the Nazi death camp Auschwitz as “a theme park just for fools” and the gas chambers a “proven hoax”.

Chabloz from Glossop in Derbyshire, was originally handed a 20-week suspended prison sentence. But she decided the challenge the verdict and was fighting to have her conviction overturned at Southwark Crown Court.

However, Judge Christopher Hehir said she was "manifestly anti-Semitic", a "Holocaust denier" and "utterly obsessed with what she perceives to be the wrongdoing of Jews".

He said: "While each song has Holocaust denial at its heart, in no case do the lyrics restrict themselves to that. Rather they weave together Holocaust denial and hateful attacks on Jewish people generally by reference to well-known anti-Semitic tropes."

In addition to her suspended prison sentence, Chabloz was also banned from posting on social media for one year and ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.

The judge said he was sure all three songs to which the charges relate were grossly offensive.

Referencing one song, Judge Hehir said: "It blames Jews for their sufferings and brands them as thieves, liars and usurers. That is woven into sickening Holocaust-related references to shrunken heads, soaps, lampshades and smoke coming from crematorium chimneys. We are sure that she wrote and performed it because she hates Jews.

"We emphasise that anti-Semitism is not a crime, just as Holocaust denial is not. Nor can the fact that somebody is a Holocaust denier or an anti-Semite prove that anything she writes or sings is grossly offensive. However her anti-Semitism and her attitude to the Holocaust are in our judgment highly relevant to her state of mind so far as her musical compositions are concerned."

Chabloz, who wore a black and white patterned suit, was joined in the courtroom by a small group of supporters.

She had previously defended her work as "satire" and claimed many Jewish people found the songs funny.

She performed the songs at a meeting of the far-right London Forum group and also posted them online.

While being cross-examined in March, she called for an “official investigation” into the number of victims killed in the “so-called Holocaust”, and claimed there was no proof that gas chambers existed.

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The Crown Court is a court of record, meaning that its judgement upholding the previous Magistrates’ Court decision sets a new precedent in British law. Many brave British patriots died in the cause of defeating the Nazis. Alison Chabloz is no patriot and her actions defending the Nazis and claiming that the Holocaust was a fraud seek to defile their sacrifice. This sentence sends a strong message that in Britain, Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories will not be tolerated.”

Chabloz was convicted of two counts of causing an offensive, indecent or menacing message to be sent over a public communications network after performing two songs at the London Forum event.

She was also convicted over another charge relating to a third song.

Additional reporting from agencies