Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Statements.

A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his school days.

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

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

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."

A Pointed Inquiry

The correspondence poses straightforward questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your peers to antisemitic abuse?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating 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 sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved 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.

Growing Accounts

This intervention is a response to the dismissal of related accounts by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. 28 ex-students and educators now assert they observed bigoted conduct by him.

One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a long hiss to simulate the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise shared experiences with allegations of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors poses a final dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and apologise."

"People who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances divide people by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."