Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Antisemitic Remarks.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for alleged antisemitic abuse he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his time at school.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of hateful words – for we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The document poses straightforward questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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.

Growing Accounts

This public letter comes after the rejection of similar testimony by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have come forward. 28 people connected to the school now state they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

More individuals from diverse backgrounds have also spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was branded a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The missive from survivors asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should not ever sow discord by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."