Holocaust Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Remarks.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his time at school.
The political party leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".
"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the profound danger of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a open letter.
"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not among children. Not ever."
An Unequivocal Demand
The correspondence asks blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"
Those Who Signed
The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with devastating personal histories from the Holocaust.
- 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 spending the rest of the war in hiding.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.
The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Mounting Testimony
This public letter comes after the characterisation of related accounts by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.
Following the publication, more contemporaries have spoken out. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now state they observed prejudiced actions by him.
One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes making a long hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.
A Broader Pattern
Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have additionally come forward with stories of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were without intent.
- Another pupil of Asian descent characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial intimidation".
A Concluding Demand
The final appeal poses a final challenge to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the time to admit your error and apologise."
"Individuals who seek to govern our country should never sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
