Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Comments.

A group of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for reported anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his time at school.

The Reform UK leader has said he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "playground banter".

"As Shoah survivors, we understand the grave risk of hateful words – for we have experienced firsthand where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a open letter.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, jeering at gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not under any circumstances."

An Unequivocal Demand

The document asks straightforward questions to the political figure: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you expose your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The collective of 11 survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal experiences from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 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 imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to 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 public letter comes after the characterisation of corroborating allegations by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "complete fiction" by a high-ranking official.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have come forward. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now claim they observed 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 repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "send them to the gas chambers", sometimes including a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of poison gas.

A Broader Pattern

Additional alumni from minority ethnic backgrounds have also spoken publicly with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial bullying".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors poses a final dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that scores of witnesses are fabricating their stories? If you did say them, now is the time to take responsibility and apologise."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should not ever divide people by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about ethical duty. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."