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

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for alleged antisemitic taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his youth.

The political party leader has claimed he never racially abused anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.

"It is crucial to understand: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

A Pointed Inquiry

The letter asks blunt questions to the party leader: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"

The Signatories

The group of eleven survivors contains individuals with devastating personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• 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 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.

Growing Accounts

This intervention is a response to the characterisation of similar allegations by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have spoken out. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now state they saw prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", at times including a long hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from diverse backgrounds have likewise shared experiences with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was branded a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "open 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 dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean 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."

"People who hope to lead our country should not ever divide people by race or religion. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."