Shoah Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Antisemitic Statements.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for reported antisemitic abuse attributed to him toward Jewish schoolmates during his time at school.

The political party leader has claimed he never targeted anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we understand the deadly peril of bigoted language – because we have seen where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a missive.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not among children. Not under any circumstances."

A Direct Question

The correspondence poses straightforward questions to the party leader: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your peers to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of eleven survivors features individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 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 concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent 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 comes after the rejection of similar testimony by more than several dozen former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have come forward. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now claim they observed prejudiced actions by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", sometimes making a hiss to mimic the sound of the gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have likewise spoken publicly with allegations of direct abuse.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was branded 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 had a point" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances divide people by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about ethical duty. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."