Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Comments.

A group of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of hateful words – because we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not among children. Not ever."

A Direct Question

The correspondence asks blunt questions to the public figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through 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 liberated.

The remaining survivors 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 dismissal of similar allegations by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

Since the initial report, more contemporaries have shared their stories. 28 people connected to the school now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a young Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes adding a hiss to mimic the sound of the gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have also come forward with stories of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "racial slur" and has rejected the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and apologise."

"Those who seek to govern our country should never sow discord by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."