Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of bigoted language – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not among children. Not ever."

A Direct Question

The document asks straightforward questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

The remaining survivors 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 related accounts by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have spoken out. 28 ex-students and educators now assert they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes adding a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was branded a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another individual with Asian roots portrayed 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 survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Those who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances create division by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."