Holocaust Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the profound danger of words of hatred – because we have seen where such words can lead," wrote the survivors in a missive.

"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not among children. Not under any circumstances."

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter poses blunt questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

Other signatories 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 rejection of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have come forward. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now state they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have likewise spoken publicly with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The missive from survivors poses a final challenge to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"Those who seek to govern our country should not ever divide people by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."