Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Antisemitic Comments.
A group of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his time at school.
The Reform UK leader has said he never targeted anyone with the aim to hurt, suggesting it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"Being Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of hateful words – because we have seen where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.
"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not simple joking. Not among children. Not ever."
An Unequivocal Demand
The correspondence puts forth direct questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"
The Signatories
The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.
Other signatories 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 characterisation of similar accounts by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.
Following the publication, more contemporaries have spoken out. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes including a hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.
Additional Claims
More individuals from ethnic minorities have likewise spoken publicly with accounts of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has rejected the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
- Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Ultimate Question
The final appeal poses a final question to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and make amends."
"Those who hope to lead our country should never create division by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."
