Bernard Marks, a well-known, Holocaust survivor and activist, has died at the age of 89.
Rabbi Moni Alfi of Sacramento's Congregation B'Nai Israel, where Marks was a beloved member, shared the news on Facebook.
"A Holocaust survivor, and a proud American patriot, Bernie was a fierce voice for justice, particularly on behalf of immigrants and refugees," she wrote. "He was a character. He was unique. He was seemingly unstoppable."
Marks was born in 1929 in Lodz, Poland. A young boy at the start of World War II, his father lied about his age — telling Nazis he was five years older than he actually was, meaning he could be put to work — in order to help keep him alive.
After more than five years working as a slave laborer, Marks ultimately survived both Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps, liberated in 1945 at the age of just 13.
After the war, Marks immigrated to the United States, settling down with his wife Eleanor near Sacramento. In recent years, he gained national attention for his outspoken activism.
At an ICE forum in 2017, hosted by Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, Marks went viral after standing up and comparing the Trump administration's policies on refugees and undocumented immigrants to policies during the Nazi regime.
"History is not on your side," Marks said.
Marks' worldviews were inextricably intertwined with his own past and personal experiences. But politics aside, the message he spread through his final year of life was clear and universal.
"The problem is we do not like to remember the past," Marks told ABC10 in April 2018. "I want the people to understand that we must be very vigilant of what's going on around us. The words that we use on Holocaust Remembrance day... is those words 'never again.' Those words must be embedded in our brain. That history repeats itself."
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