British Lawmaker Aiden Burley Quits Over Nazi-Themed Party

By JTA February 6, 2014

A British lawmaker who arranged a Nazi-themed bachelor party in France said he will not seek re-election.

“After a difficult time, I have decided to announce I will stand down at the next general election,” Aiden Burley of the Conservative Party announced on Wednesday, The Guardian reported.

The announcement came two weeks after an internal party investigation of the December 2011 event determined that Burley’s actions were neither racist nor anti-Semitic. The party reprimanded Burley, who was dismissed in December 2011 as parliamentary private secretary for Transport Secretary Justine Greening a week after photos of his presence at the stag party at a French ski resort came to light.

At least one party participant dressed up in an SS officer’s uniform, and the guests toasted to the Nazi Party and the Third Reich. Burley had purchased the uniform and brought it to the party.

It is illegal in France to wear or exhibit in public Nazi-era memorabilia or copies of such memorabilia. Burley told investigators that he did not know it was illegal to wear such memorabilia in France, since it is not illegal in the United Kingdom.

Burley, who was elected to the House of Commons as a member of Parliament in 2010, offered an “unreserved, wholehearted and fulsome apology” in a letter to the London-based Jewish Chronicle newspaper.

Following an investigation by French prosecutors, the groom was fined for wearing the SS uniform, and also was required to donate to an organization representing the families of Holocaust victims.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO