Holocaust Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Comments.

A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for reported antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we grasp the grave risk of bigoted language – because we have seen where such words ultimately lead," declared the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

The correspondence asks blunt questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 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 concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

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

Growing Accounts

This action comes after the rejection of related testimony by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

Following the publication, additional former pupils have shared their stories. 28 former pupils and teachers now state they observed prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", on occasion making a long hiss to simulate the sound of poison gas.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise shared experiences with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was branded a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors poses a final dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are lying? If you did say them, now is the time to admit your error and apologise."

"People who seek to govern our country should never create division by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about ethical duty. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."