Shoah Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Antisemitic Remarks.

A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and apologise for reported anti-Jewish taunts attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his time at school.

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

"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a letter.

"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

The letter asks direct questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to 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.

Increasing Allegations

This intervention is a response to the dismissal of related accounts by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.

Following the publication, additional former pupils have spoken out. 28 people connected to the school now assert they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion making a hiss to mimic the sound of gas chambers.

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally shared experiences with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should not ever create division by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."