Holocaust Victims Urge Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Reported Anti-Jewish Comments.

A coalition of Shoah survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and express remorse for reported anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish pupils during his school days.

The political party leader has said he never racially abused anyone with the aim to hurt, framing it may have been mere "playground banter".

"As Holocaust survivors, we comprehend the deadly peril of words of hatred – because we have experienced firsthand where such words inevitably end," declared the survivors in a missive.

"We must be unambiguous: expressing admiration for Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not teasing. Not on a schoolyard. Not anywhere."

An Unequivocal Demand

The correspondence puts forth direct questions to the party leader: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ accompanied by mimicking gas chambers? Did you expose your classmates to bigoted harassment?"

The Signatories

The group of 11 survivors contains individuals with deeply traumatic personal stories from the Nazi genocide.

• Hedi Argent, who was bereaved of 27 members of her family.
• Simon Winston, who was held in a ghetto before escaping in 1942 and spending the rest of the war as a fugitive.
• 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 action follows the rejection of corroborating allegations by more than several dozen ex-schoolmates and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a deputy leader.

After the story broke, additional former pupils have come forward. Nearly thirty people connected to the school now state they observed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent testimony comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish-born Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would sidle up to him and say the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", sometimes making a prolonged hissing sound to imitate the sound of poison gas.

Additional Claims

More individuals from ethnic minorities have also come forward with allegations of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar claimed he was called a "Paki" and has rejected the notion that such actions were without intent.
• Another pupil of Asian descent described him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell was right" as a form of "ethnic harassment".

A Concluding Demand

The final appeal asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, is your position that 20 former classmates and teachers are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the moment to acknowledge you were wrong and say sorry."

"Individuals who aspire to lead our country should not ever sow discord by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must never be normalised. This moment is about moral responsibility. The decision is yours, Mr Farage."