Holocaust Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for reported antisemitic abuse attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," declared the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

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

Those Who Signed

The group of eleven survivors features individuals with deeply traumatic personal histories from the Holocaust.

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

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

Increasing Allegations

This public letter is a response to the rejection of corroborating allegations by more than two dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now claim they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion making a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

More individuals from ethnic minorities have additionally shared experiences with stories of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The final appeal poses a final question to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"People who aspire to lead our country should never create division by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."