Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Make Amends Over Alleged Antisemitic Comments.

A coalition of Holocaust survivors has called for that Nigel Farage admit the facts and apologise for reported anti-Jewish taunts he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his youth.

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

"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the profound danger of hateful words – for we have witnessed where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a letter.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, mimicking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence asks direct questions to the political figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ while mimicking gas chambers? Did you target your peers to anti-Jewish taunts?"

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 imprisoned in a ghetto before breaking out in 1942 and living through the rest of the war in hiding.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

Other signatories include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Mounting Testimony

This public letter follows the characterisation of similar allegations by more than two dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

Following the publication, further individuals from that era have come forward. Twenty-eight ex-students and educators now assert they saw bigoted conduct by him.

One notable account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish award-winning director, who recalls that a teenage Farage would come near him and repeat the phrases "Hitler had the correct idea" and "gas them", sometimes adding a hiss to mimic the sound of the gas chambers.

A Broader Pattern

More individuals from diverse backgrounds have also come forward with allegations of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was branded a "Paki" and has labelled as rubbish the idea that such actions were without intent.
• Another individual with Asian roots characterised him as an "open racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "racial intimidation".

A Concluding Demand

The missive from survivors poses a final challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that scores of witnesses are not telling the truth? Should the allegations be true, now is the opportunity to admit your error and apologise."

"Those who aspire to lead our country should never create division by ethnicity or faith. Hatred of Jews must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."