Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A coalition of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for alleged anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".
"Being Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.
"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."
An Unequivocal Demand
The correspondence poses direct questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"
The Signatories
The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.
The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Growing Accounts
This public letter follows the dismissal of related allegations by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.
After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now claim they saw prejudiced actions by him.
One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", on occasion including a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.
Additional Claims
Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with stories of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the idea that such actions were without intent.
- Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Survivors' Final Appeal
The survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."
"People who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."
