A German-born sergeant in the Canadian Army was fined roughly $2,200 and given a “severe reprimand” after joking about the Holocaust while conducting an infantry training course

But the 38-year-old officer was not demoted, even though a military tribunal considered handing down that punishment

The sergeant, identified as K.E. Bluemke, pleaded guilty last October in an Ontario court martial to one count of “conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline.” He was charged after 12 participants in the training course said he had made multiple antisemitic jokes and comments about Jews and the Holocaust

According to court documents, which were first reported on Friday by CTV News Vancouver Island, Bluemke began the training course by asking, “Is anyone here Jewish?” Throughout the course, he proceeded to make comments such as, “Move with the sense of urgency as a certain group did leaving Germany in 1939,” and “Why do Jews have big noses? Because the air is free”[…]
“I am having difficulties finding the right word to qualify the use of stereotypes and the reference to the unspeakable horrors suffered by the Jewish community before and during the Second World War to make adverse comments intended as jokes,” Cmdr. Martin Pelletier[…]wrote in his decision. “The word ‘distasteful’ does not suffice. It is in my opinion utterly disgusting. Regardless of who in the [Canadian Armed Forces] engages in such conduct, it should make a reasonable member cringe and worry about belonging to the same organization as the perpetrator”[…]
Soldiers in the training course described Bluemke’s conduct as “offensive, demeaning, and unprofessional”[…]Pelletier specifically cited a Jewish soldier’s victim impact statement as an “aggravating factor” in Bluemke’s sentencing