Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Statements.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for reported anti-Jewish comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of hateful words – because we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a letter.

"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not in a playground. Not ever."

A Direct Question

The document poses blunt questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This intervention is a response to the rejection of similar allegations by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have come forward. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", at times including a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from diverse backgrounds have additionally spoken publicly with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are lying? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Those who hope to lead our country should not ever sow discord by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."