Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for alleged anti-Jewish comments attributed to him toward Jewish pupils during his time at school.

The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with malicious intent, framing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the grave risk of hateful words – because we have seen where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not in a playground. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence poses blunt questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Holocaust.

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

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 comes after the rejection of corroborating testimony by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.

Since the initial report, additional former pupils have spoken out. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now state they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

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

A Broader Pattern

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

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Ultimate Question

The survivors' letter puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to admit your error and say sorry."

"Individuals who hope to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."