🔗 Share this article Holocaust Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Anti-Jewish Statements. A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days. The Reform UK leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk". "As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of bigoted language – because we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive. "Let us be clear: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances." A Pointed Inquiry The correspondence asks direct questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to antisemitic abuse?" The Signatories The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with deeply traumatic personal histories from the Nazi genocide. Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family. Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved 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 is a response to the rejection of related accounts by more than two dozen alumni and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader. After the story broke, further individuals from that era have spoken out. 28 former pupils and teachers now claim they observed prejudiced actions by him. One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", on occasion adding a hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers. A Broader Pattern More individuals from ethnic minorities have also spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment. Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were devoid of malice. Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation". The Ultimate Question The missive from survivors asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "By denying 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 seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."
A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days. The Reform UK leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk". "As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of bigoted language – because we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive. "Let us be clear: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances." A Pointed Inquiry The correspondence asks direct questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to antisemitic abuse?" The Signatories The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with deeply traumatic personal histories from the Nazi genocide. Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family. Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved 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 is a response to the rejection of related accounts by more than two dozen alumni and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader. After the story broke, further individuals from that era have spoken out. 28 former pupils and teachers now claim they observed prejudiced actions by him. One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", on occasion adding a hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers. A Broader Pattern More individuals from ethnic minorities have also spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment. Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were devoid of malice. Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation". The Ultimate Question The missive from survivors asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "By denying 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 seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."