🔗 Share this article Holocaust Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Statements. A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his youth. The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk". "Being Holocaust survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of bigoted language – for we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter. "We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not in a playground. Not anywhere." A Pointed Inquiry The correspondence poses blunt questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to bigoted harassment?" The Survivors The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust. Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family. Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through 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 rescued. Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi. Increasing Allegations This action follows the dismissal of related allegations by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader. Following the publication, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now assert they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him. One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times adding a prolonged hissing sound to mimic the sound of poison gas. Additional Claims Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally spoken publicly with accounts of personal harassment. Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were devoid of malice. Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment". A Concluding Demand The survivors' letter poses a final challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry." "Those who aspire to lead our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."
A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his youth. The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk". "Being Holocaust survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of bigoted language – for we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter. "We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not in a playground. Not anywhere." A Pointed Inquiry The correspondence poses blunt questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to bigoted harassment?" The Survivors The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust. Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family. Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through 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 rescued. Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi. Increasing Allegations This action follows the dismissal of related allegations by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader. Following the publication, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now assert they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him. One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times adding a prolonged hissing sound to mimic the sound of poison gas. Additional Claims Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally spoken publicly with accounts of personal harassment. Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were devoid of malice. Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment". A Concluding Demand The survivors' letter poses a final challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry." "Those who aspire to lead our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."