Holocaust Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for reported anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his time at school.
The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".
"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have seen where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a missive.
"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not in a playground. Not anywhere."
A Direct Question
The correspondence asks straightforward questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you subject your peers to bigoted harassment?"
Those Who Signed
The collective of eleven survivors features individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to 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 intervention is a response to the dismissal of related testimony by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.
After the story broke, additional former pupils have spoken out. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now state they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.
One well-known 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 had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
More individuals from ethnic minorities have likewise shared experiences with allegations of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
- Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
A Concluding Demand
The missive from survivors puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are lying? If you did say them, now is the moment to take responsibility and make amends."
"Those who hope to lead our country should not ever create division by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."