London Teacher Threatens Jewish Student ‘I’ll Send You to One of Your Gas Chambers’
by Shiryn Ghermezian
A London teacher threatened to send a Jewish student to the gas chambers for cutting the lunch line, Britain’s Daily Mail reported on Sunday.
The remark was made at North London Collegiate School, one of Britain’s leading independent day schools for girls. Its former students include actress Rachel Weisz and Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
The girl’s father, who asked for the family to remain anonymous, told the Daily Mail, “A teacher was passing by and she rushed up to my daughter and said, ‘Don’t do that or I’ll have to send you to the back of the queue or to one of your gas chambers.'” The offensive comment was overheard by a large number of other students present at the time.
“It was very unpleasant, very uncalled for and very unfortunate,” he added. “My daughter was shocked and upset. She didn’t say anything to the teacher at the time but all her friends expressed amazement. They kept saying, ‘Did she really say that?'”
Another family reported the matter to the Community Security Trust, a UK group which fights anti-Semitism and campaigns for better public education about the Holocaust in Britain. The female teacher apologized privately to the student according to the report, but the school refused to name the educator or explain what disciplinary action was taken following the incident, which happened in January.
The girl’s father said he hopes for more action from the school.
“My wife and I would also like the school to make a public statement that there has been an incident and [the remark] was totally unacceptable,” he told the Daily Mail.