Holocaust Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A group of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for reported antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish students during his youth.
The Reform UK leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".
"Being Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," declared the survivors in a missive.
"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."
A Pointed Inquiry
The document asks blunt questions to the party leader: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your fellow pupils to anti-Jewish taunts?"
Those Who Signed
The group of eleven survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal histories from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was confined to 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 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 intervention is a response to the characterisation of corroborating accounts by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.
After the story broke, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now assert they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with accounts of personal harassment.
- Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "racial slur" and has rejected the notion that such actions were without intent.
- Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".
The Survivors' Final Appeal
The missive from survivors poses a final question to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to admit your error and apologise."
"Those who seek to govern our country should not ever create division by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."
