Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Antisemitic Remarks.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for reported antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his youth.
The political party leader has said he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".
"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the profound danger of hateful words – for we have seen where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a letter.
"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."
An Unequivocal Demand
The correspondence puts forth straightforward questions to the party leader: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your classmates to bigoted harassment?"
The Survivors
The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was confined to 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 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 intervention follows the characterisation of related accounts by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.
Since the initial report, additional former pupils have come forward. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now assert they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.
One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times making a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.
Additional Claims
Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have additionally spoken publicly with allegations of personal harassment.
- Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
- Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Survivors' Final Appeal
The final appeal puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and say sorry."
"People who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."
