# What qualifies someone as a Holocaust survivor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-someone-as-a-holocaust-survivor/560605>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 14, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-someone-as-a-holocaust-survivor/560605 "2010-11-14T01:01:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 64

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**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-someone-as-a-holocaust-survivor/560605/64 "2010-11-27T09:44:09Z")

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> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> Earlier you compare the Holocaust to 9/11, but it’s not the same. 9/11 was an event in a few distinct, easily delineated places over the course of about an hour. The Holocaust was a process, mad up of many events, affecting a whole continent over more than 10 years, starting with ostricization and ending with elimination.

Until HH returns to clarify, I’m not willing to hazard a bet that 9/11 wasn’t being used in exactly the same way as the Soviet Union and the War on Drugs (and the etymology of the word “Holocaust”) and will later turn out to be some sort of “ah-hah, of course I didn’t mean that!” sort of bait.

It’s also worth noting that we’ve been trying to debate the impact of the Holocaust with someone whose argument not only contained such rhetorical gambits, but who’s on record as stating:

> [@Could the Allies have won WWII in Europe if the US had stayed truly neutral?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-allies-have-won-wwii-in-europe-if-the-us-had-stayed-truly-neutral/528014/137):
>
> Well, for beginners, I’m a semi-holocaust denier. (NO, I can’t explain what the semi-Holocaust was…I just have my doubts that the Genocide thing occurred the way we’ve been told) But, that aside, if there was a Holocaust, I believe that it was Himmler inspired, and Hitler may never have known about it.  
> \*If \*there was a Holocaust, and \*if \*Hitler did know about it, it’s my understanding that German genocide (by actual definition of ‘-cide,’ not the UN version) against the Jews wasn’t codified until the 40s.
> 
> Point being, he wasn’t irrational. Maybe mean, but, not irrational, given his own standards of morality.

I’d wager that, should this tangent continue. HH will have to define what he meant by (emphasis mine):

> [@](#):
>
> **the allegations concerning what the Germans did** during WWII.
> 
> Just because **you think you know what happened 60 years ago** because you have some relatives with a narrow experience, doesn’t qualify you to say what happened. **I have a degree in history, so I am certainly more competent than you to judge what happened.**

Without knowing what he claims “really happened”, or what the exact nature of his JAQ’ing and “semi” Holocaust denial is, trying to debate who validly can be listed as a survivor of the Holocaust seems to be pointless.

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