Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Anti-Jewish Comments.

A group of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his time at school.

The political party leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a missive.

"It is crucial to understand: expressing admiration for Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not among children. Not under any circumstances."

A Direct Question

The correspondence poses blunt questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved 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 as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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 public letter is a response to the rejection of similar allegations by more than two dozen alumni and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Additional Claims

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

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was branded a "racial slur" and has rejected the claim that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the time to take responsibility and apologise."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should never divide people by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."