Holocaust Survivors Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Antisemitic Remarks.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage be honest and express remorse for alleged anti-Jewish comments he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the grave risk of bigoted language – for we have witnessed where such words can lead," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"We must be unambiguous: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not teasing. Not among children. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The letter poses blunt questions to the party leader: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your classmates to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

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

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

Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This intervention is a response to the dismissal of corroborating allegations by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have come forward. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now claim they witnessed prejudiced actions by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have additionally spoken publicly with allegations of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were without intent.
• Another student of Asian heritage described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"Individuals who hope to lead our country should under no circumstances create division by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."