Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Remarks.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for alleged antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Holocaust survivors, we understand the grave risk of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."

A Pointed Inquiry

The document puts forth straightforward questions to the political figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Signatories

The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned 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 moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

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

Increasing Allegations

This intervention comes after the rejection of related allegations by more than two dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, additional former pupils have spoken out. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now state they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a young Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a hiss to mimic the sound of poison gas.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have also shared experiences with stories of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the time to admit your error and make amends."

"Those who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about ethical duty. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."