Holocaust Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Comments.

A collective of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for alleged antisemitic taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the profound danger of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a missive.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

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 target your fellow pupils to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Signatories

The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This public letter is a response to the characterisation of corroborating allegations by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have come forward. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now assert they observed bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with stories of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"People who aspire to lead our country should not ever divide people by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."