The connection is not long standing.

And it does, now, have a connection to racism, which has nothing to do with anything that happened 500 years ago. That's why the Daily Mailers are so enthusiastic about it. Not because of who it offends but because of who it appeals to.

I doubt if anybody would be offended by a Morris side using the Horst Wessel Song as a dance tune: just about nobody would recognize it. And the melody predates the Nazis by a century. Do either of those facts make it acceptable?