Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Claimed Antisemitic Remarks.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and apologise for alleged antisemitic taunts he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"As Holocaust survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have seen where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a letter.

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

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence asks straightforward 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 peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

The Survivors

The collective of eleven survivors features individuals with devastating personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated.

Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This public letter follows the characterisation of similar accounts by more than two dozen or more ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have spoken out. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now assert they saw prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would come near him and say the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times making a hiss to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Further Allegations

Other former pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have likewise shared experiences with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "Paki" and has rejected the claim that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors poses a final dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to take responsibility and apologise."

"Individuals who hope to lead our country should not ever sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."