Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Antisemitic Comments.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The political party leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of hateful words – because we have seen where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.

"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The correspondence puts forth straightforward questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved 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 concealed.
• 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.

Increasing Allegations

This intervention comes after the characterisation of similar testimony by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now state they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.

One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", on occasion adding a hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have also shared experiences with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "Paki" and has dismissed the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised 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 poses a final dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are lying? If you did say them, now is the moment to admit your error and say sorry."

"Those who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."