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.
Where do you find that index. Sedwick County is close to where Obama’s Grandmother was from. I still don’t buy the comment but my Father who is 83 years old he is a WW2 Vet who happened to be in Germany in 1945 as the concentration camps were liberated. Over the years he has not talked about the what he saw. Earlier this year we were in Israel at Yad Vashem and he told me more during our visit there then he ever has in my 50 years. Maybe he never talked as its a painful thing for any human being to talk about.
But my Father is a true American and always wears his flag pin when in a suit. So again Obama paints a off balanced picture of who he is and what he believes.
My Dad as a war Vet thinks So the flag pin issue is big with Vets and the not having the hand over heart as my Father has is during the Star Spangled Banner is a big issue for some voters.
So He spins another Gaffe to the voters.
It bugs the heck out of me too.
> It bugs the heck out of me too.
We owe it to those who came before us to validate-or-otherwise this claim.
If Obama’s uncle/great-uncle served with the 89th Infantry as Obama claims he did, then his great-uncle deserves our Respect and Gratitude. (Obama however had nothing to do with that!)
If he didn’t, then Obama deserves our opprobrium and scorn and strongest possible sanction and derision and contempt. And he ought to face charges for fraud, as a Valor Thief.
At least McCain served. Unlike the war-wimp Bill Clinton. Unlike the Hildebeast. And unlike Obama.
For shame!
Hussein has to go back two generations in his family to find someone who served.
In my family, we have had men serve in every war since my ancestors arrived on American soil in 1895.
One uncle even rode with Black Jack Pershing into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa!
Does that qualify me to be President of the United States?
That’s an excellent point. I’m younger than Obama, and I have a great uncle who served in World War I. I wouldn’t bring that up to show how committed my family was to military service.
Can you beat McCain?
> It bugs the heck out of me too.
Mate, I believe this is an issue that Obama can be gotten on, big-time.
Stolen Valor is an ugly thing. He is stealing valor to become POTUS.
That sucks. That is wrong. He should not be allowed to get away with this.
We can stop that from happening. I am a foreigner, so arguably it might not matter to me. But it does because it should, for all the right reasons.
Does it matter to you?
I bet it does.
Lets make it matter to everyone else.
No mention of Buchenwald or Auschwitz or Charles Payne here in an interview with Obama on the Ancestry.com’s
Military pagehttp://landing.ancestry.com/military/candidates.aspx?html=obama
>>> In January 1942, Illinois Sen. Barak Obama’s 24-year-old grandfather, Stanley Dunham, said goodbye to his wife and infant and enlisted in the U.S. Army. “He signed up for duty, joined Patton’s army and marched across Europe,” said Sen. Obama of his grandfather’s service. But Obama’s American military heritage extends further back.
In 1917, Obama’s great-grandfather Rolla Payne registered for the WWI draft. This 24-year-old bookkeeper worked for an oil well supply company in Tulsa, Oklahoma and would be called up to serve in the First World War. (Another great-grandfather and a great-great-grandfather also registered for the draft, although neither served in the Great War.)
Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather Robert Wolfey served in the Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. This Union soldier kept the rank of private throughout his service. <<<
__
FYI....Ancestry.com’s military records are free to access til the 31st in honor of Memorial Day, all the way to the Revolutionary War. Was able to document things that had only been talked about in the family. PDFs of WWI Draft cards are great, as they have signatures, address, full birthdates, employer, spouse, etc.
Agreed, and we should go through these records like biblical scholars looking for the dead sea scrolls.
Did he really have to pull this stunt on Memorial Day weekend?
He doesn’t even know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Obama, the Muslim militant is a incompetent fool.
Did the US NAVY steam into Buchenwald???
From The History Channel COMMENTS this evening:
"Now the Obama campaign is saying that Obama actually was speaking of his grandmother's brother, Charlie Payne, assigned to the 89th Infantry Division,and it was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz, that old Charlie helped to liberate.
So let's look at Charlie Payne's enlistment records:
Charles W. Payne, born 1924, enlisted 10Nov42, Navy, 6293977 Registered, order #12019, Kansas City, Wyandotte Co., Board #4
This is going to get good."
Oh yeah!
I can’t decide who is the biggest liar—Hillary or Hussein?
Maybe they will inspire a new reality show by that name:
“America’s Biggest Liar”.
I'm not so sure about that. "Death camp" in this context refers to vernichtungslager, "annihilation camps." Buchenwald, to my recollection, was one of the arbeitslager, work camps.
Of course there was death in horrible numbers in both types of camps, but only the vernichtungslager were designed for large-scale industrial killing.
Of course, Auschwitz was technically an arbeitslage as well, since the vernichtungslage was down the road a bit at Birkenau, so perhaps on that thin reed Barack can hang his hat.
http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/military/wwiiveteransresults.php?page=421&branch=N
Not if Uncle Charlie was actually in the Navy, as it now appears.
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