Holocaust Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Remarks.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish comments he reportedly directed toward Jewish pupils during his youth.

The Reform UK leader has previously stated he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the grave risk of words of hatred – because we have witnessed where such words ultimately lead," wrote the survivors in a letter.

"It is crucial to understand: praising Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or shouting racist insults is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

A Direct Question

The document puts forth straightforward questions to the political figure: "Are the claims accurate that you stated ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Survivors

The collective of 11 survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal histories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and spending the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was rescued.

Additional names on the letter include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Increasing Allegations

This action comes after the rejection of corroborating accounts by more than two dozen former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, more contemporaries have come forward. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now assert they witnessed 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 say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "send them to the gas chambers", on occasion making a hiss to simulate the sound of gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

More individuals from diverse backgrounds have also shared experiences with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the notion that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another individual with Asian roots described him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The survivors' letter poses a final question to Farage: "By denying saying those words, are you claiming that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the time to take responsibility and apologise."

"People who hope to lead our country should not ever sow discord by background or belief. Hatred of Jews must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The path forward is yours, Mr Farage."