Holocaust Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Alleged Antisemitic Comments.

A collective of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The letter puts forth blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Signatories

The group of 11 survivors contains 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 escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred 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.

Mounting Testimony

This action is a response to the rejection of related accounts by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

Following the publication, more contemporaries have come forward. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times adding a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

Further Allegations

More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have also spoken publicly with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was branded a "Paki" and has dismissed the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The final appeal puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

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