Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for reported anti-Jewish comments he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The political party leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"As Shoah survivors, we understand the deadly peril of words of hatred – because we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," wrote the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."

A Pointed Inquiry

The correspondence poses direct questions to the political figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

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

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

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 public letter is a response to the dismissal of related accounts by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.

Following the publication, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now state they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

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

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from diverse backgrounds have also spoken publicly with allegations of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to admit your error and make amends."

"Individuals who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances divide people by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about ethical duty. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."