Shoah Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Reported Anti-Jewish Comments.

A group of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish taunts attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Shoah survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of words of hatred – for we have experienced firsthand where such words ultimately lead," stated the survivors in a letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."

A Direct Question

The correspondence puts forth blunt questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you subject your fellow pupils to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• 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 action comes after the dismissal of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen or more alumni and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a deputy leader.

Since the initial report, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now claim they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", sometimes including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of poison gas.

Additional Claims

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have also come forward with accounts of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "Paki" and has rejected the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter asks a concluding question to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are lying? If you did say them, now is the moment to take responsibility and say sorry."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances sow discord by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."