Holocaust Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for alleged anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of words of hatred – because we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence poses blunt questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you subject your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was held 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 incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

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 is a response to the dismissal of similar accounts by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.

Following the publication, additional former pupils have shared their stories. 28 people connected to the school now state they observed prejudiced actions by him.

One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

More individuals from ethnic minorities have additionally come forward with accounts of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors poses a final dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that scores of witnesses are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"People who seek to govern our country should not ever sow discord by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."