Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage be honest and apologise for reported anti-Jewish taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a missive.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not simple joking. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

The document asks straightforward questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"

Those Who Signed

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

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in 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 transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

Other signatories 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 corroborating accounts by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, further individuals from that era have come forward. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now assert they observed prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would come near him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes making a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally shared experiences with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Ultimate Question

The survivors' letter asks a concluding question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to admit your error and apologise."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."