Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Antisemitic Statements.
A group of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his school days.
The Reform UK leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".
"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a open letter.
"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."
An Unequivocal Demand
The letter poses straightforward questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to bigoted harassment?"
Those Who Signed
The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Holocaust.
- 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 living through the rest of the war concealed.
- 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 characterisation of similar testimony by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.
Since the initial report, more contemporaries have come forward. 28 ex-students and educators now assert they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion making a hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.
Additional Claims
More individuals from diverse backgrounds have additionally shared experiences with stories of personal harassment.
- Cyrus Oshidar claimed 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 "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".
A Concluding Demand
The final appeal poses a final dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to take responsibility and make amends."
"Those who hope to lead our country should never sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."
