Holocaust Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Anti-Jewish Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and express remorse for alleged antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his time at school.

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

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a missive.

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

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter asks direct questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved 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 intervention is a response to the dismissal of similar testimony by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, additional former pupils have spoken out. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now state they observed bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", sometimes making a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from diverse backgrounds have also spoken publicly with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Ultimate Question

The final appeal asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances divide people by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."