--- title: Holocaust Survivor Blasts Trump's Immigration Policies description: A Holocaust survivor told President Trump's top immigration enforcement officer that stricter policies are "on the wrong side of history" canonical: https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-29T19:52:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:11.415Z article:section: Politics og:title: Holocaust Survivor Warns Trump Administration: 'History Is Not on Your Side' og:description: He survived Auschwitz and Dachau og:url: https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c01d0b3f099c2a/6988c0792dce01ab539ecd0b/bernard-marks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4829 og:image:height: 2716 og:image:alt: Bernard Marks, who survived the Nazi holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp, speaks during a town hall meeting with Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Sacramento og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Holocaust Survivor Warns Trump Administration: 'History Is Not on Your Side' twitter:description: He survived Auschwitz and Dachau twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c01d0b3f099c2a/6988c0792dce01ab539ecd0b/bernard-marks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Holocaust Survivor Warns Trump Administration: 'History Is Not on Your Side' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Last Nazi Trials [Watch (HLS stream): The Last Nazi Trials](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/iBig1Tcg.m3u8) (7:02)  _Published 2016-05-03. The trial of a former Nazi guard brings forth questions about justice and forgiveness for Holocaust survivors and German citizens._ by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Mar 29, 2017 7:52 PM UTC  Bernard Marks, who survived the Nazi holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp, speaks during a town hall meeting with Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Sacramento, California on March 28, 2017. Bernard Marks, who survived the Nazi holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp, speaks during a town hall meeting with Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Sacramento, California on March 28, 2017. Stephen Lam—Reuters by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Mar 29, 2017 7:52 PM UTC An 87-year-old [Holocaust](http://time.com/4654554/holocaust-museum-white-house-remembrance-day-jews-donald-trump/) survivor didn’t mince words when he told off a top immigration enforcement official at a meeting in California Tuesday —warning that history is not on the side of the Trump administration. Bernard Marks, who said he survived imprisonment in [Auschwitz](http://time.com/4373337/nazi-trial-auschwitz-survivor-conviction/) and [Dachau](http://time.com/3679153/1945-report-dachau/) concentration camps, spoke out while addressing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director [Thomas Homan](http://time.com/4704084/donald-trump-immigration-sheriffs-287g/) at a public forum in Sacramento. “When I was a little boy in Poland, for no other reason but for being Jewish, I was hauled off by the Nazis,” Marks told them, [CBS Sacramento reported](http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/03/28/holocaust-survivor-has-strong-words-for-ice-director-sheriff-at-immigration-forum/). “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.” “We stand up here, Mr. Jones, don’t forget,” he continued. “History is not on your side.” Marks’ comments were [met with cheers and applause](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF8u3aPvlKk) from the audience. Homan responded to Marks’ comments, insisting that immigration enforcement officials will only arrest people in courthouses, but not on [school grounds](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/federal-immigration-raids-net-many-without-criminal-records-sowing-fear/2017/02/16/a37e5e76-f486-11e6-a9b0-ecee7ce475fc%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.61b62fba8c40) or [at churches](http://time.com/4674729/immigrations-church-sensitive-policy-concerns/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/"},"headline":"Holocaust Survivor Warns Trump Administration: 'History Is Not on Your Side'","datePublished":"2017-03-29T19:52:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:11.415Z","description":"He survived Auschwitz and Dachau","url":"https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/","keywords":["Immigration","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c01d0b3f099c2a/6988c0792dce01ab539ecd0b/bernard-marks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c01d0b3f099c2a/6988c0792dce01ab539ecd0b/bernard-marks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bernard Marks, who survived the Nazi holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp, speaks during a town hall meeting with Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Sacramento","caption":"Bernard Marks, who survived the Nazi holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp, speaks during a town hall meeting with Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Sacramento","creditText":"Stephen Lam—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/","name":"Holocaust Survivor Warns Trump Administration: 'History Is Not on Your Side'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Last Nazi Trials","description":"The trial of a former Nazi guard brings forth questions about justice and forgiveness for Holocaust survivors and German citizens.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/iBig1Tcg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-05-03T21:02:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/iBig1Tcg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/","duration":"PT7M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4717077/holocaust-survivor-trump-immigration/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```