Holocaust Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Antisemitic Comments.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

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

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the grave risk of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," stated the survivors in a letter.

"It is crucial to understand: expressing admiration for Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not among children. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter poses blunt questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal histories 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 as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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.

Growing Accounts

This intervention is a response to the rejection of similar accounts by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, additional former pupils have come forward. 28 former pupils and teachers now assert they witnessed prejudiced actions by him.

One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times including a long hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise come forward with allegations of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was branded a "racial slur" and has rejected the claim that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal poses a final challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"People who hope to lead our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."