Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Comments.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for reported antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The political party leader has said he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of bigoted language – for we have witnessed where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."

A Pointed Inquiry

The letter puts forth straightforward questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

The group of 11 survivors features individuals with devastating personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through 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 rescued.

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

Growing Accounts

This public letter comes after the characterisation of related accounts by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a high-ranking official.

Following the publication, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now assert they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times including a hiss to simulate the sound of poison gas.

Additional Claims

More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have also shared experiences with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised 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 final appeal poses a final question to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are lying? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Individuals who hope to lead our country should under no circumstances create division by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."