Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Comments.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for reported antisemitic taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his school days.

The political party leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, framing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of bigoted language – for we have seen where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not among children. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter asks blunt questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Signatories

The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with devastating personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

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

Increasing Allegations

This intervention is a response to the characterisation of related allegations by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion adding a prolonged hissing sound to mimic the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have additionally spoken publicly with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Those who seek to govern our country should not ever sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."