Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.
A coalition of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for reported antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.
The political party leader has said he never racially abused anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".
"As Holocaust survivors, we understand the profound danger of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a open letter.
"It is crucial to understand: expressing admiration for Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."
A Direct Question
The document poses direct questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"
The Signatories
The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust.
- Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
- Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred 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.
Increasing Allegations
This action follows the characterisation of related accounts by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.
Since the initial report, additional former pupils have shared their stories. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now state they saw bigoted conduct by him.
One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion including a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.
Additional Claims
More individuals from diverse backgrounds have also spoken publicly with accounts of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was branded a "Paki" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were without intent.
- Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".
A Concluding Demand
The missive from survivors puts forth an ultimate dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."
"Those who aspire to lead our country should never divide people by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
