Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Antisemitic Comments.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish students during his time at school.

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

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have seen where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not ever."

A Direct Question

The document puts forth blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

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

Growing Accounts

This intervention follows the characterisation of related accounts by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now claim they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a young Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have also spoken publicly with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "blatant 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 challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the moment to admit your error and apologise."

"Individuals who hope to lead our country should never create division by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."