--- 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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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4a90ebae-a81b-4896-8edc-6eb550fbc8c8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## 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/). ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Our family had tried so hard to stay together. My sister Edith was about 12 years old was sent in the direction that my mother went. The SS guard he motioned me to in the direction other young adults went. I didn't move. I leaned over peering into the crowd and trying to see if Edith had caught up. I was horrified that she would not find our mother. She would be lost to our family, alone amongst strangers. The trauma of this separation Lingers with me to this day. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ CROSSTALK ] It's not a matter of Sending him to jail for the rest of his life. I don't feel that, that will help, but what's happening now will help. And today, I must do what I'm asked to do and not stop and cry because that is not what's required at the moment [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Okay look at me. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ LAUGH ] It's a teaching moment for the entire country of Europe to rethink and learn from it. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] The lawyers were searching for people Survivors. They asked, would I come, and do I know anything about this Nazi guard, and of course no. I was much too distracted to look into his face, but I was not required to have remembered the face, so I said yes. If I can help. I would come. So far over the last seven decades, prosecutors just focused on the murder of the people who arrived in Auschwitz on the lam and then were gassed right No prosecutor ever brought forward a charge, saying that a guard is also responsible for making it possible that the people who were prisoners in the camp were murdered systematically. And the indictment against Hanning is the first indictment that actually says Auschwitz was altogether A organized factory of mass murder. Not only the selection on the [ INAUDIBLE ] This is, I am here. Right here standing here. As I said in the testimony, I had just been separated from my younger sister, and as I was saying I didn't leave. I actually defied orders, I just stood there. How am I to leave her like this? People tell me, you know she died, you know everybody died, and it's been a long time. And it doesn't help. [ MUSIC ] This is Council Aide and Justice Says it's too little, and is a enormous failure, it's a system in the end does the right thing, it's better than not going. I think the main purpose of this trials is to give justice to our clients, it's for them. I just want him to Hear from me and others who testified, what the consequences were of what he did at a young age. But he keeps his eyes down, head down. I don't know whether he doesn't want to face the survivors. What his motivation is. I really don't know. [ FOREIGN ] And the further you go down in the chain of command, the more the question arises of how far legal responsibility goes. And if none of the witnesses know the defendant, this, in the view of the defense, is a testament to how unremarkable the defendant possibly was. [ MUSIC ] I'm not interested in the personality of the defendant. For me he's a broken, failed person. What is he supposed to do? He's defending himself? That's ridiculous. What is he supposed to do? He's defending himself? That's ridiculous. If he was a warden in Auschwitz, I already judge him. I can't judge that. Forgiveness? Maybe he just... How many people followed? How many people killed? Maybe they didn't have a choice but to act in that way? [ MUSIC ] There's a lot of talk of forgiveness, I'm very surprised about it. Everybody had to do their part or it wouldn't have worked efficiently. How does mass murder get forgiven? [ MUSIC ] The crime is so enormous, it's not a forgivable crime, it's a crime to be analyzed and learned from. 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