SS members 'not all criminals': AfD's leading candidate steps back over Nazi remark
A German far-right party's leading candidate in next month's European parliamentary elections has stepped back from campaigning after saying that members of the SS, the Nazis' paramilitary force, were "not all criminals".
Maximilian Krah says the AfD must 'maintain its unity'. Pic: Reuters
Maximilian Krah has also resigned from the AfD's (Alternative for Germany) senior leadership team with immediate effect.
The SS took a leading part in the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.
But Krah said that before describing someone as a criminal, he wanted to know what they had done "personally".
He told the Financial Times that many of the SS's 900,000 members were "simple farmers who didn't have another choice".
The celebrated German writer Gunter Grass had been a member of the Waffen-SS, he said.
"It doesn't mean that there wasn't a particularly high proportion of criminals in these units and that on the whole, it was the SS that took part in crimes - that is clearly true," Krah said.
"But I won't say that [someone] was automatically a criminal because he wore the wrong uniform."
Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Krah said the "SS were not all criminals".
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After holding an emergency meeting to discuss his comments, the AfD's party board said there had been "massive damage to the party in the current election campaign, for which the lead candidate had provided the pretext".
Krah said many SS members were 'simple farmers'. Pic: Reuters
It wasn't immediately clear whether Krah was still running for the European Parliament.
The AfD had been polling second but has slipped down the ratings in recent weeks.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has said her National Rally party is making a "clean break" with the AfD.
After stepping back from campaigning, Krah said that "statements from me are being misused as a pretext to harm our party".
He added: "The last thing we need right now is a debate about me. The AfD must maintain its unity."