Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A collective of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for alleged anti-Jewish comments attributed to him toward Jewish students during his youth.

The political party leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with malicious intent, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words can lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"It is crucial to understand: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."

A Pointed Inquiry

The correspondence poses blunt questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Signatories

The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to 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.

Mounting Testimony

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

Since the initial report, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now assert they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", at times including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise spoken publicly with accounts of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "Paki" and has dismissed the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter poses a final challenge to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Those who seek to govern our country should not ever create division by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."