Bernard Marks, a holocaust survivor, challenged US ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan in 2017 during a public forum on immigration. Now, the video of the confrontation have resurfaced.
Marks, who was 88 at the time, passed away a year later. However, his words pointing to President Donald Trump’s top immigration enforcer remain relevant today when the administration reinforces strict immigration policies.
Among the rest, Marks reminded Homan that history was not on the administration’s side.
“When I was a little boy in Poland, for no other reason but for being Jewish, I was hauled off by the Nazis,” Marks read from a piece of paper.
He then opened up about his entire family being killed and him being the sole survivor. Marks was in two concentration camps, Auschwitz and Dachau. He was taken there at the age of just seven, when the Nazi occupied his hometown of Lodz, Poland. He stayed there until April 27, 1945, when American troops liberated the camp. When he was finally freed, Marks was 13 years old.
“And I am a survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau,” he continued his speech before turning to the organizer of the event, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, and warned him against working with Homan and Trump’s administration agenda regarding immigrants.
“I spent five and a half years in concentration camps, for one reason and one reason only: because we picked on people,” he said, CBS Sacramento reported.
“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.
“History is not on your side.”
Following the speech of this holocaust survivor who challenged ICE director, the audience erupted in cheers.
“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 added.
The words of this holocaust survivor resonate with many during these times when the government continues the uncontested deportation of large numbers of migrants under contentious wartime legislation.
He believed our country could do better. “I think the more of us who like to speak up, maybe we can have a better country. A country without hate,” he said.
The comments under the resurfaced video show great support for the bravery of Bernard Marks to speak up.
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