Holocaust Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Antisemitic Remarks.

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

The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, framing it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"As Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of words of hatred – for we have witnessed where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a letter.

"It is crucial to understand: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The document puts forth blunt questions to the public figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

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

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was held 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 freed.

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 comes after the dismissal of similar testimony by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have come forward. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now state they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was correct" and "gas them", at times making a prolonged hissing sound to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have likewise come forward with accounts of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the notion that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal puts forth an ultimate question to Farage: "Should you continue to deny saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the time to admit your error and make amends."

"Individuals who seek to govern our country should never create division by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never become acceptable. This moment is about personal accountability. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."