Holocaust Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.
A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for reported anti-Jewish abuse attributed to him toward Jewish students during his time at school.
The political party leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter".
"Being Holocaust survivors, we grasp the profound danger of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a letter.
"It is crucial to understand: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not ever."
A Direct Question
The letter asks straightforward questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"
Those Who Signed
The group of 11 survivors features individuals with deeply traumatic personal histories from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.
Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Mounting Testimony
This intervention comes after the characterisation of corroborating allegations by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.
Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. 28 former pupils and teachers now claim they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion including a hiss to mimic the sound of the gas chambers.
Additional Claims
Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise shared experiences with stories of direct abuse.
- Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were without intent.
- Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
A Concluding Demand
The survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."
"People who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances create division by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
