Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for reported anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his youth.
The political party leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of bigoted language – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a open letter.
"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not in a playground. Not ever."
An Unequivocal Demand
The letter puts forth blunt questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to bigoted harassment?"
The Signatories
The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.
Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Increasing Allegations
This public letter follows the rejection of similar accounts by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.
Following the publication, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now state they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", sometimes including a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.
Further Allegations
Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have likewise come forward with allegations of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was branded a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were without intent.
- Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".
The Ultimate Question
The final appeal puts forth an ultimate dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that scores of witnesses 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 never divide people by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."