Shoah Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Antisemitic Remarks.

A group of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and issue an apology for alleged antisemitic taunts attributed to him toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

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

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

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

A Direct Question

The letter puts forth blunt questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your peers to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The group of 11 survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before escaping 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 rescued.

The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This intervention is a response to the dismissal of corroborating testimony by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "made-up twaddle" by a high-ranking official.

Since the initial report, additional former pupils have come forward. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now state they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born award-winning director, who has stated that a young Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have also shared experiences with allegations of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The survivors' letter poses a final dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that dozens of individuals are fabricating their stories? If the words were spoken, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"People who hope to lead our country should never divide people by race or religion. Antisemitic hatred must never become acceptable. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."