Repellent craze of ‘gas chamber’ hissing spreading through classrooms

▶ JEWISH CHILDREN are being taunted by classmates hissing to emulate the Nazi gas chambers in schools nationwide, according a long-time campaigner against antisemitism.

Based in Brighton, Fiona Sharpe is liaison officer with the local Jewish Representative Council.

Her role brings her into frequent contact with schools and official bodies in other parts of Britain.

Ms Sharpe told the JC: “Hissing goes on in non-Jewish schools in many parts of the country, often after classes on the Holocaust.

“It’s become a common way to bully Jewish kids, and as a result, they feel threatened.”

She said she is convinced that the figures in the schools antisemitism survey published today in the JC are a vast underestimate of the real total: “Children find it very difficult to talk about these things, especially in secondary schools. They don’t want anyone even to raise the issue – and a result, they become still more vulnerable.

“I would guess that maybe one in 10 incidents is reported, and of that, maybe half end up being recorded.”

She added that the absence of antisemitism policies may mean “when the hissing starts teachers don’t know what it means”.

Meanwhile, the Community Service Trust (CST) has also compiled a large number of reports of pupils subjected to bullying using Nazi language and imagery.

In January, a Jewish girl was told by several classmates: “Hitler had it right, he should have killed all the Jews.” The pupils drew swastikas in the playground and shouted “Free Palestine” at her. In

It’s become a common way to bully Jewish kids and they feel threatened

February, a Jewish boy began to receive regular abuse in class. He was called a “Jew c***” and subject to online abuse. Eventually, his parents removed him from the school.

In March, a teenage Jewish boy was repeatedly subjected to Nazi salutes in school. On one occasion, a pupil shouted: “Heil f***ing Hitler.”

In April, a boy on his way home from a Jewish school was accosted by a nonJewish boy from another school who shouted “Jew” and tried to punch him in the face.

Also in April, a months-long campaign of abuse culminated in a child being called a “Jew boy” and then being told: “If Hitler had finished the job on your grandparents you wouldn’t be here.”

In May, a teacher told the CST that her year 11 students had been “signing shirts for the start of exam season and some of the students had swastikas and SS logos written on their shirts”. Also in May, “students from a local secondary school walked past a Jewish nursery and shouted “f***ing Jews” at its kindergarten age kids. And a Jewish teacher at a non-Jewish school was told by one of her 14-year-old pupils: “I am a Nazi, I hate the f***ing Jews, you’re a f***ing Jew aren’t you?”

On this occasion, the CST told the JC that “the school has expelled the boy and been very supportive to the victim”.

In July, a girl saw a classmate had drawn a swastika on his hand. The CST said: “The boy said it was a ‘smiley face’. Another boy heard this and said: ‘Hitler didn’t do a very good job killing the Jews so maybe I could do it for them.’ A third boy heard this and did a Nazi salute to the girl.”

When the hissing starts, teachers don’t know what it means