Shoah Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Anti-Jewish Statements.
A coalition of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage tell the truth and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The political party leader has said he never targeted anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of words of hatred – because we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a letter.
"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."
A Direct Question
The correspondence poses blunt questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"
The Survivors
The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.
Additional names on the letter 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 related testimony by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.
After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. 28 former pupils and teachers now claim they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with accounts of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".
A Concluding Demand
The missive from survivors puts forth an ultimate dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the time to take responsibility and apologise."
"Those who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances divide people by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about ethical duty. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."