Off The Record
Resurfaced Clip Shows Holocaust Survivor’s Emotional Stand Against Trump’s ICE Director
Resurfaced is the startling incident in which a Holocaust survivor addressed Donald Trump’s chief immigration enforcer.
Speaking at a public debate on immigration in 2017, Bernard Marks, who passed away in December 2018 at the age of 89, offered advice that is still relevant in the United States today.
In order to remind Thomas Homan, the Acting Director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the time, and the Trump administration that history was not on their side, Marks addressed him directly while sporting a sticker that stated, “Keep American Families together.”
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 then made the heartbreaking admission that, although he had escaped the Auschwitz massacre, his whole family had been killed.
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 courageously went on to caution the event’s organizer, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, against assisting Homan in implementing Trump’s harsh deportation policy.
“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 warning struck a chord with the audience, who erupted in cheers.
Even though the remarkable speech was brief, it made an impact that people are still thinking about today, particularly in light of the Trump administration’s continued uncontested deportation of large numbers of migrants under contentious wartime legislation.
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.”
Marks emphasized that anti-immigrant sentiment was a “danger that is all too familiar to me” in an opinion post for The Sacramento Bee.
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 transported to Auschwitz and Dachau to perform manual labor after the Nazis conquered his city of Lodz, Poland, when he was just seven years old.
Only five of his family’s 200 members survived the atrocities of the war when American troops liberated the camp on April 27, 1945, when he was 13 years old.
In order to ensure that “we do not forget the past,” Marks continued to teach students in the US and Europe about the events that took place in the decades preceding his passing.
In memory of his late wife, he also established the Eleanor J. Marks Foundation, which encourages youngsters to participate in a Holocaust-themed writing contest.
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.”
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