Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Anti-Jewish Statements.

A group of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish comments he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of bigoted language – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not among children. Not ever."

A Direct Question

The document puts forth straightforward questions to the political figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

Those Who Signed

The group of eleven survivors features individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

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

Mounting Testimony

This public letter comes after the dismissal of similar allegations by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have spoken out. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now assert they witnessed prejudiced actions by him.

One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion adding a hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have likewise come forward with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter poses a final dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the time to take responsibility and make amends."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should never divide people by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."