Holocaust Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Comments.
A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".
"Being Holocaust survivors, we grasp the profound danger of words of hatred – for we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.
"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."
A Pointed Inquiry
The document asks blunt 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?"
The Signatories
The group of eleven survivors features individuals with devastating personal stories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.
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 public letter is a response to the rejection of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.
Following the publication, additional former pupils have spoken out. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now claim they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.
One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times making a long hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.
Further Allegations
Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with stories of personal harassment.
- Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
- Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".
A Concluding Demand
The survivors' letter asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."
"Individuals who hope to lead our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
