Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Alleged Antisemitic Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish comments he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his time at school.

The political party leader has previously stated he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the profound danger of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a letter.

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

A Direct Question

The correspondence puts forth direct questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your fellow pupils to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Signatories

The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with devastating personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Growing Accounts

This public letter comes after the dismissal of similar allegations by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

Following the publication, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. 28 people connected to the school now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times making a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

Additional Claims

More individuals from ethnic minorities have also spoken publicly with accounts of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• 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 "racial intimidation".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors poses a final dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are lying? If the words were spoken, now is the moment to admit your error and make amends."

"People who hope to lead our country should under no circumstances create division by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."