Holocaust Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Antisemitic Statements.
A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for reported antisemitic taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish students during his youth.
The political party leader has said he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of words of hatred – because we have seen where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.
"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not ever."
A Direct Question
The letter poses direct questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to bigoted harassment?"
The Survivors
The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with devastating personal experiences from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was confined to 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 moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.
The remaining survivors 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 characterisation of similar testimony by more than two dozen alumni and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.
Following the publication, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. 28 former pupils and teachers now assert they observed bigoted conduct by him.
One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", at times making a prolonged hissing sound to mimic the sound of gas chambers.
Further Allegations
Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with accounts of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".
The Ultimate Question
The survivors' letter asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."
"People who hope to lead our country should never sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."
