Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Statements.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for alleged anti-Jewish comments he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The political party leader has said he never insulted anyone with the aim to hurt, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

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

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter puts forth straightforward questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors features individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 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 concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved 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.

Mounting Testimony

This action is a response to the characterisation of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have spoken out. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now assert they observed bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", at times including a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from diverse backgrounds have also shared experiences with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was branded a "racial slur" and has dismissed the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another pupil of Asian descent characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors poses a final challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to admit your error and apologise."

"People who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."