A TORY student group has apologised after leaked footage showed them dancing to a Nazi marching song.
The Warwick University Conservative Association asked the DJ at a gathering following their annual “chairman’s dinner” to play Erika, a song composed in 1938 by Nazi soldier Herms Niel.
In a leaked video published by The Times, students can be seen dancing and laughing to the song before one member spots the camera and says: “Don’t film!”
The students are also accused of chanting “Kill the Hughs” – substituting the word “Jews” for the name of their outgoing association chairman Hugh Herring.
Reports suggest they also said: “Heil the chairman”.
EXCL 🚨 Tory student group held black-tie dinner two weeks ago where members sang German marching song used by the Nazis in WW2
— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) June 30, 2024
Warwick Uni Conservative Association sorry after dancing to “Erika” — used by SS and Wermacht and today white supremacists https://t.co/ZdQvhgFvBd pic.twitter.com/9Qva9rUqqP
The group has since apologised, claiming they were “unaware of the origins and connotations of the song".
In a statement they said the group “wholeheartedly condemns the behaviour exhibited during this video and apologises for any offence that has been caused".
“We are committed to ensuring that anyone else we find to have knowingly engaged with the song is no longer welcome at events.”
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They added that they had no recollection of students chanting anything offensive.
A spokesperson for Warwick University said it was reviewing the footage, saying “behaviour like this is reprehensible and we are disappointed to see our students involved”.
In recent years the song Erika has been adopted many within the white supremacist movement, such the the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand.
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