Holocaust Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Comments.
A collective of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for reported antisemitic taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.
The political party leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a open letter.
"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not among children. Not anywhere."
A Pointed Inquiry
The letter puts forth blunt questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"
The Survivors
The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who was bereaved 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 as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved 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.
Increasing Allegations
This intervention is a response to the characterisation of corroborating allegations by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.
After the story broke, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. 28 ex-students and educators now assert they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a young Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a hiss to mimic the sound of gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have also spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment.
- Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Survivors' Final Appeal
The final appeal puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."
"People who hope to lead our country should never sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."
