Shoah Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Antisemitic Statements.

A collective of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for reported antisemitic comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The political party leader has said he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the grave risk of hateful words – because we have seen where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a open letter.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The letter asks blunt questions to the political figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of 11 survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

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 comes after the dismissal of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, more contemporaries have spoken out. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a young Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion adding a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of poison gas.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have also shared experiences with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots described 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 final appeal poses a final challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the time to admit your error and say sorry."

"People who aspire to lead our country should never sow discord by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."