Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Alleged Antisemitic Remarks.

A group of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for reported antisemitic comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has said he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the deadly peril of bigoted language – for we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a missive.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not among children. Not under any circumstances."

A Pointed Inquiry

The document asks blunt questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your fellow pupils to anti-Jewish taunts?"

Those Who Signed

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

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 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 concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This action is a response to the characterisation of related testimony by more than two dozen alumni and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, further individuals from that era have come forward. 28 former pupils and teachers now claim they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", on occasion adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have also come forward with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"People who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about ethical duty. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."