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

A collective of Shoah survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for alleged antisemitic abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

The political party leader has said he never insulted anyone with malicious intent, proposing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Shoah survivors, we understand the profound danger of words of hatred – because we have seen where such words inevitably end," wrote the survivors in a open letter.

"It is crucial to understand: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not on a schoolyard. Not ever."

A Direct Question

The correspondence asks blunt questions to the party leader: "Did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your fellow pupils to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with devastating personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who saw the murder of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was confined to a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to 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 action is a response to the characterisation of similar accounts by more than several dozen alumni and teachers as "complete fiction" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have shared their stories. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now claim they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One notable testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who said that a young Farage would sidle up to him and utter the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", at times including a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

Further Allegations

Additional alumni from ethnic minorities have additionally shared experiences with stories of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has rejected the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Survivors' Final Appeal

The final appeal puts forth an ultimate dilemma to Farage: "If you deny saying those words, are you claiming that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the time to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should under no circumstances create division by race or religion. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."