Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.

A group of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish taunts attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

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

"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not ever."

A Direct Question

The letter asks blunt questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Signatories

The group of 11 survivors includes individuals with devastating personal histories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• 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.

Increasing Allegations

This action comes after the rejection of corroborating testimony by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.

Following the publication, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now assert they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have also spoken publicly with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" 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 challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to admit your error and say sorry."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should never create division by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."