Holocaust Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A group of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported anti-Jewish taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his youth.
The political party leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".
"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of hateful words – for we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," declared the survivors in a letter.
"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."
An Unequivocal Demand
The correspondence asks blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"
The Signatories
The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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.
Increasing Allegations
This public letter comes after the dismissal of similar accounts by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.
Since the initial report, 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 Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes making a long hiss to mimic the sound of gas chambers.
Further Allegations
Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have also come forward with stories of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "Paki" 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 was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Survivors' Final Appeal
The missive from survivors poses a final challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."
"People who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances divide people by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."