Shoah Survivors Call On Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A collective of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage be honest and apologise for alleged anti-Jewish comments he is said to have made toward Jewish schoolmates during his time at school.

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

"As Shoah survivors, we understand the deadly peril of hateful words – because we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," stated the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: praising Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not ever."

An Unequivocal Demand

The letter asks blunt questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The collective of 11 survivors features individuals with harrowing personal histories 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 imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at 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.

Increasing Allegations

This intervention follows the characterisation of corroborating testimony by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

Since the initial report, further individuals from that era have spoken out. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion including a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of poison gas.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have additionally shared experiences with stories of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal asks a concluding dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the opportunity to take responsibility and apologise."

"People who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances divide people by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."