Holocaust Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.
A group of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for alleged antisemitic taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.
The political party leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a letter.
"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."
A Pointed Inquiry
The letter puts forth direct questions to the party leader: "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 11 survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.
Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Growing Accounts
This intervention follows the dismissal of related accounts by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a high-ranking official.
After the story broke, more contemporaries have spoken out. 28 people connected to the school now state they observed prejudiced actions by him.
One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes making a hiss to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.
Additional Claims
More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with allegations of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
- Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed 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 survivors' letter poses a final challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."
"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."