An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned by Nazis in both the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps lambasted Trump’s chief ICE official at a public forum on Tuesday.
Bernard Marks told the story of his childhood, and reminded those assembled of the eerie parallels between the current push to deport Mexicans and ban Muslims, and how he spent almost six years in a camp.
“When I was a little boy in Poland, for no other reason but for being Jewish, I was hauled off by the Nazis,” Marks said. “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.”
After Marks directed that reminder to Thomas Homan, the Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), he turned his attention to another panelist.
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, who hosted the event, was warned against working with Homan to carry out the Trump Administration’s controversial deportation policies, which include stalking immigrants at courthouses and churches.
In comments posted online by CBS Sacramento, he said:
“I spent five and a half years in concentration camps, for one reason and one reason only: Because we picked on people. 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.
And when this gentleman (Homan) stands up there and says he doesn’t go after people, he should read today’s (Sacramento) Bee. Because in today’s Bee, the Supreme Court Justice of the State of California objected to ICE coming in and taking people away from the courts.
Don’t tell me that this is a lie. We stand up here, Mr Jones, don’t forget. History is not on your side.”
