Holocaust Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Antisemitic Statements.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and express remorse for alleged anti-Jewish abuse he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.
The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have seen where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a letter.
"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not anywhere."
A Pointed Inquiry
The correspondence asks direct questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to antisemitic abuse?"
The Survivors
The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating personal stories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported 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 action is a response to the characterisation of corroborating allegations by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.
After the story broke, further individuals from that era have come forward. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a young Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times making a hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.
Additional Claims
More individuals from diverse backgrounds have likewise shared experiences with stories of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea 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 Survivors' Final Appeal
The survivors' letter poses a final challenge to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."
"Those who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances create division by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."
