Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.

A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and express remorse for alleged anti-Jewish comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish students during his time at school.

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

"Being Holocaust survivors, we understand the profound danger of hateful words – for we have seen where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence puts forth straightforward questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of eleven survivors features individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• 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 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.

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

Increasing Allegations

This public letter is a response to the dismissal of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. 28 people connected to the school now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour 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 repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", on occasion making a long hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have also come forward with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "Paki" and has rejected the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to take responsibility and apologise."

"People who hope to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."