Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Comments.

A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for alleged antisemitic abuse he reportedly directed toward Jewish students during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, suggesting it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of bigoted language – because we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a letter.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

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

The Signatories

The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with harrowing personal histories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

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

Mounting Testimony

This public letter is a response to the characterisation of corroborating testimony by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have spoken out. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

More individuals from diverse backgrounds have additionally shared experiences with stories of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The missive from survivors asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that scores of witnesses are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and make amends."

"Individuals who hope to lead our country should under no circumstances divide people by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about ethical duty. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."