Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Comments.

A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and express remorse for alleged antisemitic comments attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The political party leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Shoah survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of words of hatred – because we have seen where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."

A Direct Question

The correspondence puts forth straightforward questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your classmates to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The group of 11 survivors contains individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

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

Growing Accounts

This intervention comes after the dismissal of related accounts by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a senior party figure.

Following the publication, more contemporaries have spoken out. 28 ex-students and educators now claim they witnessed bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion making a long hiss to mimic the sound of poison gas.

Additional Claims

More individuals from ethnic minorities have also come forward with allegations of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was called a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another individual with Asian roots portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the moment to take responsibility and apologise."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should not ever sow discord by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."