A Conservative students’ group has apologised for holding a black-tie dinner a fortnight ago in which members sang a German marching song used by the Nazis during the Second World War and since reclaimed by the far right.
Warwick University Conservative Association held its annual “chairman’s dinner” last month at Wroxall Abbey, a hotel near Leamington Spa, where the historian David Starkey spoke and a share of the proceeds was donated to Help for Heroes, the veterans’ charity.
After the meal, a member of the association approached the DJ and asked him to play Erika, a song composed in 1938 by Herms Niel, who served as a trooper leader in the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung, or SA.
Erika has since been used