Shoah Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Statements.
A group of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for reported anti-Jewish comments attributed to him toward Jewish pupils during his school days.
The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".
"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of bigoted language – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive.
"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."
A Pointed Inquiry
The correspondence poses blunt 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 expose your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"
Those Who Signed
The collective of 11 survivors features 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 imprisoned in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.
Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Mounting Testimony
This public letter follows the characterisation of corroborating testimony by more than several dozen former pupils 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 witnessed prejudiced actions by him.
One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times including a hiss to mimic the sound of gas chambers.
Additional Claims
Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with stories of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
- Another pupil of Asian descent characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Ultimate Question
The final appeal asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to admit your error and say sorry."
"People who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."
