Holocaust Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his time at school.

The political party leader has said he never targeted anyone with the aim to hurt, suggesting it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have seen where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a missive.

"It is crucial to understand: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter poses straightforward questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of 11 survivors includes individuals with devastating personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing 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.

Additional names on the letter 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 rejection of similar testimony by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would come near him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times adding a long hiss to mimic the sound of poison gas.

A Broader Pattern

More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have also spoken publicly with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to take responsibility and apologise."

"People who aspire to lead our country should not ever divide people by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."