Holocaust Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Comments.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The political party leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we understand the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have seen where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not in a playground. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

The correspondence puts forth straightforward questions to the party leader: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

The Survivors

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

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

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

Increasing Allegations

This intervention is a response to the rejection of corroborating accounts by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, more contemporaries have come forward. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now claim they observed bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of poison gas.

A Broader Pattern

Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have also come forward with allegations of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "Paki" and has dismissed the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The final appeal puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"Individuals who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."