Tory activist suspended over Nazi references

A CONSERVATIVE Party youth activist has been suspended from the party after he wrote a newsletter to other members which contained references to the Holocaust.

David Bolt, 20, described the campaigning of party's youth organisation, Conservative Future, as being akin to the Sonderkommando –death camp units made up of prisoners who helped kill fellow inmates during in Nazi death camps.

Literally translated as "special unit", sonderkommandos were predominantly made up of jewish prisoners forced to help with the gassing of fellow inmates. Very few survived the War.

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In his newsletter, Bolt – who is studying music at the University of Huddersfield – said: "In effect we will form a CF Sonderkommando which will be available to blitz many areas".

Following the publication of the newsletter, Tory officials acted to suspend Bolt immediately. Virtually all references to him on the Conservative Future website have been removed with a spokesman describing his words as "unacceptable".

Last night his father, Councillor Martyn Bolt the deputy leader of the Conservatives on Kirklees Council, said that his son had used the term without understanding its true meaning and that he had not intended any offence.

Coun Bolt said: "It was something he had heard in a conversation and he had looked it up in a dictionary, which of course only gave him a literal definition but not the historical background.

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"I have no idea how long the suspension will last, that's a matter for Conservative Future's head quarters. The word suspension implies it is a temporary measure.

"He is very upset about any hurt he may have caused people who suffered during the Second World War. Something like makes your world come crashing down but it will be a salutatory lesson for him."