Holocaust Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A group of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for reported antisemitic comments he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his youth.

The political party leader has said he never racially abused anyone with malicious intent, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"As Holocaust survivors, we understand the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," declared the survivors in a letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence puts forth blunt questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you subject your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

Those Who Signed

The collective of eleven survivors features individuals with devastating personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

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 rejection of similar testimony by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now assert they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

Further Allegations

More individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds have also shared experiences with accounts of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal puts forth an ultimate dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to take responsibility and say sorry."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should never create division by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."