Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Antisemitic Comments.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his school days.
The political party leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter".
"Being Holocaust survivors, we understand the deadly peril of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a letter.
"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."
A Direct Question
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 anti-Jewish taunts?"
The Signatories
The group of 11 survivors features individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.
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 characterisation of similar allegations by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.
Following the publication, more contemporaries have come forward. 28 ex-students and educators now claim they saw prejudiced actions by him.
One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would come near him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have likewise come forward with stories of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were without intent.
- Another student of Asian heritage described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".
The Ultimate Question
The survivors' letter asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."
"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should not ever create division by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."
