Shoah Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for reported antisemitic comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

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

"Being Holocaust survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a open letter.

"It is crucial to understand: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not in a playground. Not ever."

A Pointed Inquiry

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

The Survivors

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

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

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

Growing Accounts

This public letter follows the characterisation of corroborating allegations by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have come forward. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now assert they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", at times adding a hiss to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have likewise shared experiences with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another pupil of Asian descent characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter poses a final challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and make amends."

"People who seek to govern our country should never create division by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."