Shoah Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his youth.

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

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

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not among children. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence poses direct questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through 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.

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 similar allegations by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.

Following the publication, further individuals from that era have come forward. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now claim they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes including a long hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have likewise spoken publicly with stories of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors poses a final dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"People who aspire to lead our country should not ever sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."