http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/27/recollection-of-obama-familys-service-missing-key-details/Barack Obama’s campaign scrambled Tuesday to set the record straight after the Democratic presidential candidate said on Memorial Day that his uncle helped liberate the Auschwitz death camp at the end of World War II.
There were two obvious problems with the tale: Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army, and Obama’s American mother was an only child.
As the Republican National Committee seized on the discrepancies, Obama’s campaign clarified that the Illinois senator was actually referring to his “great uncle,†and that he had confused Auschwitz with another concentration camp. The campaign said he meant to refer to Ohrdruf, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.
“Senator Obama’s family is proud of the service of his grandfather and uncles in World War II — especially the fact that his great uncle was a part of liberating one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald,†Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. “Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically.â€
The campaign said his great uncle, Charlie Payne, served in the 89th Infantry Division, and that the unit was among those to liberate Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945.
According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site, Ohrdruf was the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops in Germany. The site said the 89th Infantry Division was later recognized as a “liberating unit†by the museum and the Army’s Center of Military History.
The explanation from the Obama camp came after his remarks were put under the microscope by the RNC.
“Barack Obama’s dubious claim is inconsistent with world history and demands an explanation. It was Soviet troops that liberated Auschwitz, so unless his uncle was serving in the Red Army, there’s no way Obama’s statement yesterday can be true. Obama’s frequent exaggerations and outright distortions raise questions about his judgment and his readiness to lead as commander in chief,†said RNC Press Secretary Alex Conant.
The trouble started when Obama was speaking in Las Cruces, N.M., on Monday. He said he did not serve, but comes from a family that did sacrifice for the nation. He was speaking about the many members of the military who suffer post traumatic stress disorder and should be given better care.
“I had a uncle who was one of the, who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps and the story in our family is that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn’t leave the house for six months, right. Now obviously something had really affected him deeply but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain,†he said.A quick check on the Holocaust museum Web site showed that Soviet forces were the first to approach Auschwitz, which was in Poland.
“On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners,†the site reads.
U.S. forces did liberate several camps, including Ohrdruf Concentration Camp on April 4, 1945; Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp on April 11, 1945; Buchenwald on April 12, 1945; Dachau on April 29, 1945; and Mauthausen on May 5, 1945.
Ohrdruf was, according to the Holocaust Museum, not an extermination camp but a work camp where prisoners were worked to death.
Obama was raised in part by his grandparents, and his father served in the second World War.
