Holocaust Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Comments.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for alleged antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The political party leader has said he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".
"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a letter.
"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not among children. Not anywhere."
A Direct Question
The correspondence puts forth blunt questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you subject your peers to antisemitic abuse?"
The Survivors
The group of 11 survivors features individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.
- 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 living through the rest of the war in hiding.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to 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 intervention follows the dismissal of similar allegations by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.
Following the publication, more contemporaries have come forward. 28 people connected to the school now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.
Additional Claims
More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally come forward with allegations of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "Paki" and has rejected the claim that such actions were without intent.
- Another student of Asian heritage described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
A Concluding Demand
The missive from survivors asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are lying? If you did say them, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."
"Those who seek to govern our country should never sow discord by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
