Shoah Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Antisemitic Comments.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for reported antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter".
"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the profound danger of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a missive.
"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not among children. Not ever."
A Direct Question
The letter puts forth straightforward questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"
Those Who Signed
The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with devastating personal experiences from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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.
Growing Accounts
This public letter is a response to the dismissal of similar allegations by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.
Following the publication, additional former pupils have spoken out. 28 ex-students and educators now claim they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally spoken publicly with accounts of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
- Another student of Asian heritage portrayed 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 final appeal asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are lying? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."
"Individuals who seek to govern our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."
