Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Antisemitic Comments.
A coalition of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage be honest and apologise for reported antisemitic abuse attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.
The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".
"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the profound danger of hateful words – for we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a letter.
"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not among children. Not anywhere."
A Pointed Inquiry
The letter asks blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to antisemitic abuse?"
The Survivors
The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before breaking out 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 liberated.
The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Increasing Allegations
This intervention follows the rejection of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.
After the story broke, further individuals from that era have spoken out. 28 former pupils and teachers now claim they saw bigoted conduct by him.
One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes making a hiss to simulate the sound of poison gas.
Additional Claims
Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have likewise come forward with allegations of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has rejected the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "avowed bigot" 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 challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to admit your error and apologise."
"Those who hope to lead our country should not ever divide people by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."