Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Dieudonne Loses Appeal On Parody of Holocaust Survivor’s Song

The French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala lost his appeal over the parody of a song by a French Jewish singer and Holocaust survivor.

The country’s highest appeals court on Thursday upheld the ruling by the French Supreme Court in January and tacked on an additional daily fine for his not removing the parody from online venues. In total, the fine comes to more than $146,000.

Dieudonne, who has been convicted seven times for inciting racial hatred against Jews, changed the song by the late Barbara from “The Black Eagle” to “The Black Rat.” He reportedly called the singer “crazy.”

Her descendants argued that the parody was anti-Semitic in nature and humiliated the artist, who died in 1997, the French daily LeFigaro reported.

Barbara, born Monique Andree Serf, was forced into hiding at the age of 10 during the Nazi occupation of France, according to the Times of Israel.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version