Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A group of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".
"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the profound danger of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.
"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not simple joking. Not among children. Not anywhere."
An Unequivocal Demand
The document puts forth blunt questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"
The Signatories
The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating personal histories from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- 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.
Mounting Testimony
This action follows the rejection of corroborating testimony by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.
After the story broke, additional former pupils have shared their stories. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now claim they observed bigoted conduct by him.
One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes adding a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with accounts of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation".
The Ultimate Question
The missive from survivors asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."
"People who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances divide people by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
