Holocaust Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for alleged antisemitic comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish students during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the grave risk of words of hatred – because we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a missive.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."

An Unequivocal Demand

The document poses blunt questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Signatories

The group of eleven survivors features individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

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 dismissal of similar testimony by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now claim they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have also spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"People who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."