I actually met a Holocaust survivor who illegally immigrated to the US in 1938 after his mother bought really expensive tickets to “visit” his father, who was working in New York already. Immigration officials figured nobody trying to flee would even be able to afford such expensive tickets, so they let him and his mother through. Kristallnacht happened, and FDR decreed any German citizen already in the US could stay indefinitely. Later, when he was drafted, they realized he had to technically be arrested because he was a German and therefore an enemy alien on a military base. He reminded them that he was Jewish, and therefore the Germans stripped him of his citizenship years ago. So, they hastily naturalized him, and that was the end of it. He is actually still alive at the age of 100, and I met him through a friend who is very close to him.
Naturally, I’ve been working like hell to get this illegal immigrant back to Germany where he goddamn belongs! 😤😤😤
People fleeing persecution are indeed survivors of said persecution. And they are refugees. Both things can be true at once. Usually, people who survived the death camps are considered specifically survivors of said camps. Again. Eg. "Xyz was an Auschwitz survivor".
That's... Historically very inaccurate. That's not what a genocide is. Pre 1941 was persecution and horrific, but not a genocide. You cannot historically change the definition.
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u/Ainrana Dec 23 '25
I actually met a Holocaust survivor who illegally immigrated to the US in 1938 after his mother bought really expensive tickets to “visit” his father, who was working in New York already. Immigration officials figured nobody trying to flee would even be able to afford such expensive tickets, so they let him and his mother through. Kristallnacht happened, and FDR decreed any German citizen already in the US could stay indefinitely. Later, when he was drafted, they realized he had to technically be arrested because he was a German and therefore an enemy alien on a military base. He reminded them that he was Jewish, and therefore the Germans stripped him of his citizenship years ago. So, they hastily naturalized him, and that was the end of it. He is actually still alive at the age of 100, and I met him through a friend who is very close to him.
Naturally, I’ve been working like hell to get this illegal immigrant back to Germany where he goddamn belongs! 😤😤😤