Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Antisemitic Remarks.

A group of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for alleged antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish students during his youth.

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

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the profound danger of hateful words – for we have seen where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a missive.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

The correspondence puts forth direct questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

Those Who Signed

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

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to 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 moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Growing Accounts

This intervention follows the rejection of similar accounts by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now claim they saw prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would approach him and say the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes adding a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from diverse backgrounds have likewise come forward with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "Paki" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter asks a concluding question to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should not ever sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."