German far-right AfD's top candidate in European elections Maximilian Krah will refrain from further campaign activities and will resign from the party's leadership board with immediate effect, the politician said in a statement on Wednesday.
This comes after he told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica last weekend that the SS, the Nazi's main paramilitary force, were "not all criminals".
Krah said in a statement that his comments "are being misused as a pretext to damage our party".