Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Antisemitic Comments.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic abuse attributed to him toward Jewish students during his school days.

The political party leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the profound danger of words of hatred – because we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," declared the survivors in a open letter.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

The correspondence poses blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to bigoted harassment?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with devastating 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 fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

The remaining survivors 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 dismissal of related allegations by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have spoken out. 28 former pupils and teachers now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have also come forward with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has rejected the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors poses a final challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"Those who seek to govern our country should never divide people by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."