Neighbor News
Assemblymember Frazier recognizes family of Holocaust survivors
Solano resident attends Capitol Holocaust Remembrance Week ceremony.
SACRAMENTO – Today, Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) welcomed Solano County resident Dr. Martin Markovits to the State Capitol in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Week. Dr. Markovits is a retired pediatrician and resident of Vacaville. His parents, Chaim and Sari Markovits, were survivors of the Holocaust.
“I am humbled to be surrounded by the men and women, and their loved ones, who survived the Holocaust and continue to share their experiences,” said Frazier. “I want to thank Dr. Markovits for being here today to share his parents’ story and the ideals he learned to live by through their guidance.”
“I find myself in awe of my parents. They had the most powerful of reasons to be angry, distrustful, and full of hate,” stated Dr. Markovits. “Yet they went on with their lives, and taught, in the finest ways of living-by-example, how to live lives of love and hope and understanding. They not only raised me with those ideals, but also were pillars of their community, helping others, be they family or friends or strangers.”
Find out what's happening in Suisun Cityfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
His mother, Sari, was held in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. His father, Chaim, was used for slave labor by the Hungarian army before escaping and being captured multiple times by the Germans, only to end up being caught and put in a Russian gulag. After World War II ended, his father discovered that his parents, wife, four children (the oldest just a pre-teen), and many other family members had been taken by the Nazis and murdered in Auschwitz.
Dr. Markovits’s parents met, married, and had him in France before immigrating to America. Dr. Markovits fondly remarked, “My parents showed, by their very lives, that there is no ideology or religion or excuse of any sort that justifies senseless killing and destruction and hateful acts in its name. It is up to each individual to choose how we act, regardless of what we have been subjected to in life. There is evil, and there is good. Choose wisely.”