Holocaust Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A coalition of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The Reform UK leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of words of hatred – for we have seen where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a open letter.
"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."
A Direct Question
The correspondence puts forth direct questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"
The Survivors
The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 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 as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.
Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Mounting Testimony
This intervention is a response to the rejection of related testimony by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a high-ranking official.
Following the publication, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now state they saw prejudiced actions by him.
One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes adding a prolonged hissing sound to mimic the sound of the gas chambers.
Additional Claims
Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally spoken publicly with allegations of personal harassment.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were without intent.
- Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
A Concluding Demand
The final appeal poses a final challenge to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."
"Those who hope to lead our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
