Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Anti-Jewish Comments.

A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter poses direct questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of 11 survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Holocaust.

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

Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Increasing Allegations

This action is a response to the rejection of related allegations by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.

Following the publication, more contemporaries have come forward. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now claim they observed prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", sometimes adding a hiss to mimic the sound of poison gas.

Additional Claims

More individuals from diverse backgrounds have also come forward with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "Paki" and has dismissed the notion that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The final appeal asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are lying? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to take responsibility and say sorry."

"People who aspire to lead our country should never divide people by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about ethical duty. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."