Holocaust Survivors Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Antisemitic Comments.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for reported anti-Jewish abuse attributed to him toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The Reform UK leader has previously stated he never racially abused anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of words of hatred – because we have seen where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a letter.

"We must be unambiguous: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."

A Direct Question

The letter poses straightforward questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"

Those Who Signed

The group of 11 survivors features individuals with devastating personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later incarcerated at Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

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 rejection of corroborating allegations by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a deputy leader.

Following the publication, additional former pupils have spoken out. Nearly thirty ex-students and educators now assert they saw racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One well-known testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would come near him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times making a long hiss to imitate the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

Other former pupils from diverse backgrounds have additionally shared experiences 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 not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was correct" as a form of "racial bullying".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter poses a final question to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that 20 former classmates and teachers are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"Those who seek to govern our country should not ever sow discord by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."