Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for alleged antisemitic taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his time at school.

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

"Being Shoah survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of hateful words – for we have seen where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a missive.

"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not in a playground. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The correspondence poses 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 peers to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The collective of eleven survivors features individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending 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.

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

Growing Accounts

This intervention is a response to the dismissal of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

Following the publication, additional former pupils have shared their stories. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now claim they witnessed prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have additionally come forward with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was branded a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another individual with Asian roots portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors poses a final question to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are lying? If the words were spoken, now is the time to admit your error and say sorry."

"People who seek to govern our country should never create division by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."