His words still resonate today
The shocking moment a Holocaust survivor confronted Donald Trump’s top immigration enforcer has resurfaced.
Bernard Marks, who died at the age of 89 in December 2018, spoke at a public forum on immigration in 2017 and shared words of wisdom that still resonate in the US today.
Donning a sticker that read ‘Keep American Families together’, Marks spoke directly to the then US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director, Thomas Homan, to remind him and the Trump administration that history was not on their side.
Reading from a piece of paper, he said: “When I was a little boy in Poland, for no other reason but for being Jewish, I was hauled off by the Nazis.”
The 87-year-old went on to make the gut-wrenching admission that while he survived the genocide in Auschwitz, his entirely family were murdered.
Marks continued: “And for no other reason I was picked up and separated from my family, who was exterminated in Auschwitz.
“And I am a survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau.”
He then bravely proceeded to warn Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, who organized the event, against working with Homan to carry out Trump’s aggressive deportation mission.
“I spent five and a half years in concentration camps, for one reason and one reason only: because we picked on people,” he said, reports CBS Sacramento.
“And you, as the sheriff, who we elected as sheriff of this county, we did not elect you for sheriff of Washington, D.C. It’s about time you side with the people here.”
He concluded: “History is not on your side.”
His words of warning resonated with the audience, who burst into applause.
And while the incredible speech only lasted a few minutes, it left a lasting impression that people are still reflecting on today, especially as the Trump administration continues to deport swathes of migrants out of the country without any challenges under a controversial wartime law.
Taking to Reddit, one person said: “He’s a brave man for speaking up and sharing his traumatic experience without fear. And he’s right – elected officials are treating people like the enemy, and it’s disgusting.”
A second added: “He’s right, history is not on the administration’s side. If a Holocaust survivor told you history is not on your side, you listen and do as he says.
“It’s scary how this is so relevant now 8 years later.”
In an opinion piece for The Sacramento Bee, Marks stressed anti-immigrant sentiment was a ‘danger that is all too familiar to me’.
As per CNN, he also said: “I feel horrible when I see or hear that a father or a grandfather is being picked up. And just because they get a traffic ticket, according to ICE they’re criminal.”
Marks was just seven years old when the Nazis invaded his hometown in Lodz, Poland, where he was sent to Auschwitz and Dachau to work in manual labor.
American troops liberated the camp when he was 13 on April 27, 1945, while only five of his family of around 200 survived the horrors of the war.
Marks went on to educate students across the US and Europe about what happened in the decades before his death, to make sure ‘we do not forget the past’.
He also founded the Eleanor J. Marks Foundation in honor of his late wife which invites students to enter a writing competition about the Holocaust.
Marks also believed the US could do better, adding: “I think the more of us who like to speak up, maybe we can have a better country … a country without hate.”
