Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Apologise Over Claimed Antisemitic Statements.

A group of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage admit the facts and express remorse for reported antisemitic comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish students during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has claimed he never insulted anyone with deliberate cruelty, proposing it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"Being Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of hateful words – because we have seen where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a missive.

"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 document 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 peers to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The group of 11 survivors features individuals with devastating personal histories from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved 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 in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to 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 action follows the characterisation of similar testimony by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a senior party figure.

After the story broke, further individuals from that era have come forward. 28 former pupils and teachers now assert they saw prejudiced actions by him.

One well-known account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who has stated that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes including a hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

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

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has dismissed the idea that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another student of Asian heritage portrayed him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter poses a final dilemma to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are lying? If you did say them, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and apologise."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should never sow discord by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about ethical duty. The choice is your own, Mr Farage."