Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Anti-Jewish Comments.

A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for alleged antisemitic taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the grave risk of hateful words – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive.

"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."

An Unequivocal Demand

The document asks blunt questions to the political figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

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

• 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 concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This intervention comes after the dismissal of related allegations by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have come forward. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now state they witnessed prejudiced actions by him.

One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would approach him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", at times making a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from diverse backgrounds have additionally come forward with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."