5 things to know about Bernie Sanders

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders pauses as he speaks to supporters during his five state primary night rally held in Huntington, West Virginia, U.S., April 26, 2016. | (Photo: REUTERS/Marcus Constantino)

2. Family members died in the Holocaust

Sanders, who's admittedly not a practicing Jew, hails from a Jewish family that migrated from Poland.

“My father came to this country from Poland at 17, without a nickel in his pocket,” Sanders wrote in a tweet from March 2019. “He came to escape the crushing poverty that existed in his community and to escape widespread anti-Semitism. Virtually his entire family there was wiped out by Nazi barbarism.”

At a town hall last month, Sanders spoke about how his Jewish heritage has impacted his political vision.

"I remember, as a kid, looking at these big picture books of World War II and tears would roll down my cheeks," Sanders said. "The pain that my family, my father's family suffered in Poland is something that has impacted my life, absolutely.”