Shoah Victims Call On Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Reported Antisemitic Statements.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for reported antisemitic taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has said he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the profound danger of bigoted language – because we have seen where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive.

"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not in a playground. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter asks blunt questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your peers to bigoted harassment?"

Those Who Signed

The group of 11 survivors features individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in 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 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 is a response to the dismissal of corroborating accounts by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a high-ranking official.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have shared their stories. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now claim they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a young Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", on occasion making a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of poison gas.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise shared experiences with allegations of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another pupil of Asian descent characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal poses a final challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? If you did say them, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"Those who seek to govern our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must always be confronted. This moment is about ethical duty. The path forward is your own, Mr Farage."