Posted on 05/27/2008 7:09:52 PM PDT by Libloather
Obama mistaken on name of Nazi death camp
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The Barack Obama campaign said Tuesday the candidate mistakenly referred to the wrong Nazi death camp when relating the story of a great uncle who helped liberate the camps in World War II.
The Democratic presidential candidate said the story is accurate except that the camp was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz.
"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," campaign 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."
Aides said Tuesday that his grandmother's brother, Charlie Payne, helped liberate a Buchenwald sub-camp in April 1945 as part of the 89th Infantry Division.
In a meeting Monday with veterans, Obama discussed the importance of improving treatment for soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress. To illustrate his point, he talked about his own family.
"I had an uncle who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps. The story in our family was that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn't leave the house for six months," Obama said. "Now, obviously something had really affected him, but at that time there just weren't the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain."
Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet forces as they marched across Poland in January 1945. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum says Americans liberated several death camps in Germany, including Buchenwald, Dachau and Mauthausen.
"On April 4, 1945, the 89th overran Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Ohrdruf was the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops in Germany," according to the museum. "A week later, on April 12, Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Omar Bradley visited Ohrdruf to see, firsthand, evidence of Nazi atrocities against concentration camp prisoners."
Obama's mistaken mention of the camp on Monday quickly generated Internet chatter, ranging from puzzlement to outrage. The Republican Party demanded 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," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
While Buchenwald was indeed not a Vernichtungslager (Death Camp), meaning it didn’t possess Gas chambers like the camps in occupied Poland, it was not a Arbeitslager (Work camp) either. Most Nazi camps indeed had a forced labor component, not at least due to the network of sub-camps. Buchenwald was one of the pre-war original KZ (Concentration Camps) for political prisoners.
Treblinka was dissolved by the Germans years before the war ended, beside that "fellow troops" would mean the Red Army. Obama isn't exactly making his gaffe any better.
It's my opinion that Obama's campaign is spinning like a top to try to overcome its biggest liability - - "gravitas", particularly as it pertains to military matters and national security.
Obama is simply not in the same league as McCain and everybody knows it, so Obama spins tales of some relative's alleged military heroics and he, Obama, has the gall to send his spinmeister out on Memorial Day to proclaim these exaggerated tales as, "his personal experience of a soldier in his family." Gag me.
Obama is disgusting. What a scumbag.
> Some, perhaps many, will say it doesn’t matter. People on the left and in the media, especially, will say forget it, he mis-spoke, let’s move on. I object. For all of us who care deeply about history, who care about what horrible things happened in the Holocaust and in all of WWII, who think that historical fact matters...... a basic respect for both the dead and the living requires that we care about getting such things right!
Well said, mate. POST OF THE DAY!
Too bloody right — it DOES MATTER.
What are we, gullible fools? Is the Greatest Generation so “mostly dead” that we all have forgotten them, and their sacrifices, such that their memory and their deeds can be hijacked by every cheap muslim Chicago hustler with pretensions of Presidential greatness?
No Way. We owe our heroes much more than that.
“At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will Remember them.”
I am a foreigner, and must watch the US Presidential elections with detached interest. But that does not absolve me from making lots of noise when a LIAR invokes the sacred memory of those of the Greatest Generation who gave all.
Otherwise, what was their Sacrifice for?
Yeah the liberal MSM had a field day back in the early 90's when Quayle misspelled potato, adding an e, spelling it potatoe. They gave it coverage for days, made all the network news casts, all the usual suspect liberal papers, huge deal. Barry Hussein Obama pulls huge gaffes almost every other day, all of which, if mentioned at all in the media are quickly glossed over as they quickly go into their let's move on mode.
> Barry Hussein Obama pulls huge gaffes almost every other day, all of which, if mentioned at all in the media are quickly glossed over as they quickly go into their let’s move on mode.
I say let’s hit the PAUSE button on this one, then the REWIND and PLAY. Over and over again until we are sure we have got it right.
This lie MATTERS. This buffoon who is so improbably yclept Barry Hussein Obama has Presidential aspirations. So let’s not move on in haste: let’s instead savor the moment.
Not the same Charles W. Payne that was Madelyn Payne Dunham’s brother. The Charles Payne below was from another family entirely.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ksbarber/payne_cw.html
Not with the his lickspittle lackies in the media running interference for him. Holding my breath for this to be reported in the lamestream media (NOT)
White folks are left brain focused: object learning-focused; facts. Black folks are right brain focused; learning subjectively; focusing on people and on "story-telling".
And then he disappeared from my cranial viewing screen, leaving me with many questions.
Question: How did Obama get through and graduate Harvard Law School? Personal tutors?
It's quite possible that Facts aren't important as much as the subjective to Obama.
Did 20 years of sitting in Rev Wright's Pews have a deleterious affect upon Obama's "left brain" processes?
This stuff is really trival.
The overwhelming majority of American voters know that the Russians liberated Auschwitz. Obama is a Harvard-educated presidential candidate yet he does not appear to know even basic facts about the Holocaust. This is another nail to Obama’s coffin.
ping
When I heard of this, my first thought was that he’s trying to make his uncle seem like a victim. I didn’t hear anything about being proud of his uncle’s military service -it’s just that his uncle found the need to retreat to the attic. Of course that’s the lens through which libs will view the world, but can he not find something to be genuinely proud of in his family tree?
The only thing that keeps this clown from being a perfect IDIOT is the simple fact that no one is perfect.
http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/military/wwiivetsindex.htm
Unfortunately, I don’t think any of these 4 are the one, Obama’s family tree shows a Charles W. Payne born 1924.
That makes him the correct age, but something still doesn’t add up here...I’ll keep searching...
Yeah, John F’n Kerry comes to mind, with that cross-border trip into Cambodia “seared” into his memory...the (possibly) fake medals, etc...
To suggest that it is abnormal not to immediately revert to normality is to trivialize the combat experience and the great service and sacrifices of our men and women in the armed forces and those of our allies.
I have had the honor of being acquainted with many WWII combat vets. Almost all got on with their lives immediately upon returning home though they had plenty of scars inside as well as out.
Few WWII vets proceeded to gaily relate their war experiences upon returning home.
For most, it has been only in late life that they have been able to bring some of those years to the fore - especially at vet reunions - but primarily through putting far back in their minds the bad times and bringing up with their reunion buddies only the good memories and the humorous moments.
At times some of the bad will suddenly come back, especially in remembering the buddies that did not survive the war - and the tears will come.
But they got on with their lives. They would have considered any other option as completely unacceptable - for reasons Obama and the patronizing likes of him will never understand.
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