🔗 Share this article Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Antisemitic Remarks. A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth. The political party leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter". "Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter. "It is crucial to understand: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances." An Unequivocal Demand The letter poses blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?" The Survivors The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide. Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family. Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated. The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi. Increasing Allegations This public letter comes after the dismissal of similar accounts by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader. After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now assert they witnessed bigoted conduct by him. One prominent allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of the gas chambers. Further Allegations More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment. Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were not meant to hurt. Another individual with Asian roots portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial intimidation". The Ultimate Question The final appeal asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends." "People who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances divide people by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."
A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth. The political party leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter". "Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter. "It is crucial to understand: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances." An Unequivocal Demand The letter poses blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?" The Survivors The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide. Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family. Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated. The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi. Increasing Allegations This public letter comes after the dismissal of similar accounts by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader. After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now assert they witnessed bigoted conduct by him. One prominent allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of the gas chambers. Further Allegations More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment. Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were not meant to hurt. Another individual with Asian roots portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial intimidation". The Ultimate Question The final appeal asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends." "People who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances divide people by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."