Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A group of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for reported anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The document asks 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 target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

The Survivors

The collective of eleven survivors contains individuals with devastating personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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 intervention is a response to the rejection of related allegations by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion adding a hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise spoken publicly with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was branded a "Paki" and has dismissed the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should never sow discord by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."