various threads, just a search for Obama, Auschwitz
Dr Ron (1000+ posts) Tue May-27-08 08:52 PM
Original message
Obama Mixes Up Concentration Camp Names, Right Wing Goes Ballistic
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Obama Mixes Up Concentration Camp Names, Right Wing Goes Ballistic
May 27th, 2008 by Ron Chusid
The conservative blogs spent most of the day getting overly excited by the minor gaffe committed by Barack Obama in the video above. While this is expected from the right wing bloggers, I would expect the Republican National Committee to show a little more restraint–if for no other reason than to avoid the embarrassments they must have felt by this afternoon.
Obama stated that an uncle was present at the liberation of Auschwitz in a comment which was not part of his prepared text. Obviously this was an error unless his uncle was part of the Soviet army which actually liberated Auschwitz. The Republican National Committee responded with a statement that, “Obama’s frequent exaggerations and outright distortions raise questions about his judgment and his readiness to lead as commander in chief.â€
The RNC could have avoided some humiliation if they had waited for the explanation from Obama’s campaign as reported by Ben Smith:
In fact, campaign spokesman Bill Burton says, his great uncle was a member of the 89th Infantry Division that liberated the Ohrduf camp, part of Buchenwald and, according to the Holocaust Museum, the first concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops.
The soldier in question, Burton said, is Obama’s grandmother’s brother, who’s still alive.
UPDATE: “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. Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically,†Burton says.
Obama made a mistake in saying Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald. Auschwitz is probably the best known concentration camp and I can certainly understand why it might come to someone’s mind instead of Buchenwald. If he had the time to think about it and go back and edit he would probably have realized that this did not make sense geographically as it was the Russians, not Americans, who were in Poland at the time.
The reality is that people speaking without a prepared speech are going to make mistakes. In the You Tube era we are going to see lots of these mistakes from many politician from every party. Steve M. noted that Ronald Reagan made a comparable misstatement about himself (not even a family member) when he incorrectly “claimed he had photographed the Nazi death camps even though he was never overseas during the war.†I have much more trust in someone running for president who briefly mixed up the names of concentration camps than candidates such as John McCain and Hillary Clinton who have both repeatedly confused the 9/11 terrorist attack with justification for going to war against Iraq.
too bad the
uncle great uncle grandfather guy was in the Navy.
TacticalPeek (1000+ posts) Tue May-27-08 06:14 PM
Original message
Obama misspeaks. Where in the world is Auschwitz?
Advertisements [?]Edited on Tue May-27-08 06:26 PM by TacticalPeek
Candidate Watch
Where in the world is Auschwitz?
"I had an uncle who was one of the, um, 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 in the attic and he didn't leave the house for six months."
--Barack Obama, Memorial Day speech, Las Cruces, NM.
In an attempt to burnish his credentials with America's veterans, Barack Obama has frequently talked about his grandfather "who served in Patton's army." He has now added a new episode to his World War II repertoire: the uncle who liberated Auschwitz. Unfortunately, the story shows that the presumptive Democratic nominee has a poor grasp of European history and geography.
The Facts
UPDATED FRIDAY 5:30 P.M.
Auschwitz is located in southern Poland, near the city of Krakow. It was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. At the time, U.S. armies were still on the western borders of Germany, a thousand miles away, regrouping after the Battle of the Bulge. The Americans had not even crossed the Rhine at this point.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/whe...
More ad fodder for 'untrustworthy'.
2rth2pwr (1000+ posts) Tue May-27-08 03:30 PM
Original message
Does anybody know which military Obama's uncle fought for?
Advertisements [?]Edited on Tue May-27-08 04:20 PM by 2rth2pwr
Obama seems to have rewritten WWII history such that the allies liberated Auschwitz. (On Memorial Day!)
Here is the shocking video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV1sxq8mqvA&eurl
...Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz... http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/05/26/politics/fromth...
Referring to an uncle who had been one of the first U.S. troops into Auschwitz, the concentration camp, Obama said: "The story in the family is he came home and just went up in the attic." http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/26/oba...
Auschwitz of course is in Poland. It was liberated by the Red Army (Russian) on Jan 27 1945. Poland, on most maps is usually placed to the east of Germany.
The Allies were wrapping up the battle of the bulge in late January of 1945 -- the Rhine crossings were still well into the future when Auschwitz was liberated. The
first, the Remagen railway bridge which was discovered intact, was crossed on March 7 1945.
--
And by the way, which Uncle? Obama's mom was an only child and his dad was Kenyan. Maybe he was referring to one of his mother's uncles?; presumably his grandfather
and grandmother had brothers of service age during WWII? And presumably the uncle in question was involved in the liberation of some other prison camp?
Now, more than ever, we need Hillary.
Editing to add link to where this story came from- as you can see, he uses "sees dead people" that I used first- I was seeing who else thought of the same theme, obviously many people saw the connection. While reading I saw ANOTHER gaffe by Obama, there you go.
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2008/05/obama-hes...
andres hunter (27 posts) Tue May-27-08 08:35 PM
Original message
Washington Post: Obama "has a poor grasp of European history and geography."
Advertisements [?]Edited on Tue May-27-08 08:51 PM by andres hunter
In an attempt to burnish his credentials with America's veterans, Barack Obama has frequently talked about his grandfather "who served in Patton's army." He has now added a new episode to his World War II repertoire: the uncle who liberated Auschwitz. Unfortunately, the story shows that the presumptive Democratic nominee has a poor grasp of European history and geography.
-Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, 5-27-2008
Ouch.
This is regarding Obama's claim that his grand father helped liberate Auschwitz, when in fact Auschwitz was liberated by the Russians, in World Ward 2.
Obama's relative was the not-so-close-relative great uncle, and he was present when Americans entered the town of Ohrdruf.
For this, Obama earned three Pinochios:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/whe..
.
ShaneGR (1000+ posts) Tue May-27-08 06:16 PM
Original message
The uncle Obama speaks about, was his name Charles W. PAYNE born about 1924?
Advertisements [?]I was looking at Obama's family history, which is quite interesting, at this site:
http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/barack_oba...
You have to go to the second page to find the birth of Charles Payne on his mothers Kansas side in 1924. That's the only one that could make sense. I personally think the uncle was in Patton's army and would have liberated concentration camps, just not Auschwitz.
In the Navy...
Pirate Smile (1000+ posts) Tue May-27-08 08:55 PM
Original message
THE POINT-why Obama mentioned his uncle liberating a concentration camp-PTSD screening & treatment!
Advertisements [?]Edited on Tue May-27-08 09:31 PM by Pirate Smile
"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 was 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. That’s why you know the, this idea of making sure that every single veteran when they are discharged are screened for post traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need, that’s why its so important."
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV1sxq8mqvA&eurl=http://...
Yes - it was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz. That wasn't the point. Nobody seems to even be pointing out that the issue was, as Obama said "this idea of making sure that every single veteran when they are discharged are screened for post traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need.."
Obama's World War II history
Earlier, the Republican National Committee pounced on Obama's improbable statement that an uncle had served in the unit that liberated Auschwitz.
In fact, campaign spokesman Bill Burton says, his great uncle was a member of the 89th Infantry Division that liberated the Ohrduf camp, part of Buchenwald and, according to the Holocaust Museum, the first concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops.
The soldier in question, Burton said, is Obama's grandmother's brother, who's still alive.
UPDATE: "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. Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically," Burton says.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Obamas_Worl...
PTSD, not the names of the concentration camps.
edit to add - a comment on Daily Kos added that this came up during the Q & A, not the speech: "It wasn't during his speech, it was a part of the Q & A - a veteran asked BO about his own family's experience with war.. thats when Barack answered about his grandfather first, stating that he - grandpa rarely spoke of his experiences..except to give BO his dog tags when Barack was a teen.. and then he furthered his answer in relating the above story about his uncle... It was a relatively long and drawn out question by the vet.. so I doubt it was planted.
Hey, the story was Factually True...
