Shoah Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Remarks.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish abuse he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of words of hatred – for we have seen where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence puts forth straightforward questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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 follows the characterisation of related testimony by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have spoken out. Twenty-eight people connected to the school now assert they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.

One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", sometimes including a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally spoken publicly with accounts of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was branded a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were without intent.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The missive from survivors puts forth an ultimate dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, do you mean that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to admit your error and apologise."

"People who hope to lead our country should not ever create division by background or belief. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."