Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Antisemitic Statements.
A collective of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for reported anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.
The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".
"As Shoah survivors, we understand the deadly peril of words of hatred – because we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.
"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not among children. Not ever."
An Unequivocal Demand
The document asks direct questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to bigoted harassment?"
The Survivors
The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating personal histories from the Nazi genocide.
- Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
- Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding.
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.
The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.
Growing Accounts
This action comes after the dismissal of related accounts by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.
After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now assert they saw prejudiced actions by him.
One prominent account 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 had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a long hiss to mimic the sound of gas chambers.
A Broader Pattern
Additional alumni from diverse backgrounds have additionally shared experiences with stories of targeted insults.
- Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "Paki" and has dismissed the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
- Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".
The Survivors' Final Appeal
The survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and apologise."
"Individuals who hope to lead our country should not ever create division by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."
