BERLIN, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A German parliamentarian has refused to apologize for remarks that appeared to compare Jews during the Bolshevik Revolution to the Nazis, the BBC reported.
Conservative Martin Hohmann had said many Jews were active in execution squads during the Russian Revolution. His comments, made in an Oct.3 speech, have only surfaced now, BBC said.
He compared the killings in Russia's violent 1917 revolution, which he said were orchestrated by Jews, with the murder of Europe's Jews during the Holocaust of World War II.
Members of Hohmann's CDU party responded angrily and Jewish leaders have threatened to take legal action.
The Christian Democrats have faced allegations in the past about members having links to the extreme right.
In a brief statement on Friday, without apologizing or directly retracting his comments, Hohmann said: "I describe neither the Jews nor the Germans as a nation of perpetrators.
"It wasn't and isn't my intention to hurt anyone's feelings."
