Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Comments.

A group of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his time at school.

The political party leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the profound danger of hateful words – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a letter.

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

A Direct Question

The letter poses straightforward questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to bigoted harassment?"

The Signatories

The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

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

Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This public letter is a response to the characterisation of corroborating accounts by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have come forward. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One well-known account 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 had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion making a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have also come forward with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was branded a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the time to take responsibility and apologise."

"Individuals who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances create division by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."