Holocaust Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Statements.
A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for reported anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The political party leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".
"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the profound danger of words of hatred – because we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.
"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."
A Direct Question
The letter poses direct questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"
The Signatories
The group of eleven survivors contains individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.
Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Growing Accounts
This public letter is a response to the rejection of corroborating testimony by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.
After the story broke, additional former pupils have spoken out. 28 people connected to the school now state they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times making a hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.
Further Allegations
Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have likewise spoken publicly with accounts of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar stated he was branded a "racial slur" and has dismissed the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another individual with Asian roots portrayed 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 final appeal asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."
"Those who hope to lead our country should under no circumstances create division by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."