Ken Livingstone has erroneously claimed there was “real collaboration” between Jews and Nazis during the war as he opened his defence against claims he brought the Labour Party into disrepute.
Arriving at his disciplinary hearing in London on Thursday, the former Mayor of London gave an impromptu speech to reporters.
He claimed the “Zionist movement” asked the Nazis to stop rabbis giving sermons in Yiddish, and “make them do it in Hebrew” and that Hitler “agreed to that”.
“They passed a law that said only the Zionist flag and the swastika could be flown in Germany – there was an awful lot,” Mr Livingstone claimed.
“They [the Nazis] started selling Mauser pistols to the underground Jewish army, so you had, right up to the start of the Second World War, real collaboration.
“And when, in July 1937, many senior Nazis gathered at their foreign office, saying ‘we should stop sending Jews to Palestine because it could create a Jewish state’, in the middle of that meeting a directive comes specifically from Hitler saying ‘no, we will continue with this policy’.
“Everyone who studied history just knows this.”
Livingstone is appearing before Labour’s National Constitution Committee to answer the charge that he engaged in conduct “grossly detrimental” to the party.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “Even when it has been made blatantly clear that his comments have caused deep hurt and offence to Jewish people, and in particular to Holocaust survivors, still Ken Livingstone has persisted down this route – repeatedly invoking the Holocaust, promoting a misleading and misinformed version of history to further his agenda.
“Enough is enough.”
