Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Antisemitic Statements.

A collective of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for reported anti-Jewish comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish students during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a missive.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not among children. Not anywhere."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence poses straightforward questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through 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 rescued.

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 characterisation of related allegations by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have come forward. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now assert they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Additional alumni from diverse backgrounds have also come forward with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter poses a final challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to take responsibility and say sorry."

"People who hope to lead our country should never sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."