Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Comments.
A collective of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage be honest and apologise for reported antisemitic taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his school days.
The Reform UK leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"As Holocaust survivors, we understand the grave risk of hateful words – for we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a letter.
"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not among children. Not under any circumstances."
An Unequivocal Demand
The letter poses straightforward questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"
Those Who Signed
The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal histories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.
Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Increasing Allegations
This intervention is a response to the dismissal of corroborating accounts by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.
Following the publication, more contemporaries have shared their stories. 28 former pupils and teachers now state they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.
One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have also shared experiences with accounts of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another pupil of Asian descent characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Survivors' Final Appeal
The missive from survivors asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to take responsibility and make amends."
"Those who hope to lead our country should never sow discord by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."