Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen twice cited his father’s experience as a Holocaust survivor in the opening hours of his contentious testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

Late in the morning, Republican congressman Mark Meadows said that Lynne Patton, a former Trump Organization event planner and current official with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, had denied Cohen’s charge that Trump was personally racist. “She says that as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist,” Meadows said. “How do you reconcile the two of those?”

“Neither should I, as the son of a Holocaust survivor,” Cohen replied.

Earlier, in his prepared testimony, Cohen said that his father “survived the Holocaust thanks to the compassion and selfless acts of others. He was helped by many who put themselves in harm’s way to do what they knew was right.”

Cohen’s father, Maurice Cohen, is a Polish survivor of the Holocaust. The Wall Street Journal reported in August that it was Maurice Cohen who convinced Michael Cohen to flip on Trump.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis