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

A collective of Shoah survivors has publicly demanded that Nigel Farage be honest and apologise for reported antisemitic abuse he reportedly directed toward Jewish schoolmates during his school days.

The political party leader has said he never targeted anyone with malicious intent, suggesting it may have been mere "childish teasing".

"Being Shoah survivors, we grasp the deadly peril of words of hatred – for we have seen where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive.

"Let us be clear: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or directing racial slurs is not simple joking. Not among children. Not anywhere."

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 expose your fellow pupils to antisemitic abuse?"

The Signatories

The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with harrowing personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending 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.

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 action comes after the rejection of corroborating accounts 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 shared their stories. Twenty-eight former pupils and teachers now assert they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent allegation comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who recalls that a young Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", on occasion including a hiss to simulate the sound of the gas chambers.

Further Allegations

More individuals from diverse backgrounds have likewise come forward with accounts of targeted insults.

• Cyrus Oshidar stated he was referred to as a "racial slur" and has labelled as rubbish the claim that such actions were not meant to hurt.
• Another pupil of Asian descent portrayed him as an "avowed bigot" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Ultimate Question

The final appeal puts forth an ultimate challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are lying? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to acknowledge you were wrong and make amends."

"Those who seek to govern our country should under no circumstances sow discord by ethnicity or faith. Antisemitic hatred must never be normalised. This moment is about personal accountability. The decision is your own, Mr Farage."