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Obama relative recalls World War II horror (Madelyn Dunham's brother)
Chicago Tribune ^ | 5-8-09 | John McCormick

Posted on 05/07/2009 11:05:02 PM PDT by STARWISE

For much of his 84 years, Charles Payne has lived in Chicago in relative obscurity and watched his sister's grandson rise to the presidency.

But now it appears possible that a painful part of Payne's own story will be brought to the forefront, based on German news reports that President Barack Obama is considering a visit to the concentration camp that his great uncle helped liberate in April 1945.

Payne, who spent much of his career working in library science at the University of Chicago, was a private first class in the 89th Infantry Division during World War II when he participated in the liberation of Ohrdruf, a forced-labor camp that was a satellite of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

"I remember seeing a lot of really emaciated people in rags at the point of starvation. People were clutching tin cups for food," he said Thursday in a Tribune interview. "I saw sheds where dead bodies had been stacked up."

*snip*

"She was a great storyteller," he said of his sister. "You couldn't totally rely on the details."

Dunham, described as something of a second mother to Obama, died in Honolulu just days before he was elected president.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: charlespayne; dunham; madelyndunham; obama; obamafamily; obamauncle; veteran; wwii
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To: Jeff Head
So, Barry, sounds like by your reckoning, that anoyone who has served is mentally ill?

And can thus be "legally" disarmed. That's why he has a bunch of bucks in the DoD budget for a trial run of computerized national medical records, the guinea pigs for the trial being our servicemen and women.

61 posted on 05/08/2009 4:15:43 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Jeff Head
So, Barry, sounds like by your reckoning, that anoyone who has served is mentally ill?

It crossed my mind at least two years ago, that when the troops return from Iraq, there will be well over one hundred thousand men and women who served there, who each have a story to tell about what it was really all about. That's a very large number...and they have families and friends. I made the comment once, that the returning troops will each, in their own way, become a coffin-nail for islam. By telling what they saw and experienced, they can lay bare, in a personal way, the truth about islam, in a way no one else can.

Do the troops require to be discredited before their return? I think that's what we are seeing now.

62 posted on 05/08/2009 5:07:18 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
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To: Fred Nerks
The number will be far greater then 100,000. We have had ove 100,000 there for the entire time for over 6 years. Rotating in and out.

Lots of reups, but atill, I think between Iraq and Afghanistan, byt he time it is over, that the number is going to be closer to a million.

...and many of them are already home, telling their stores.

63 posted on 05/08/2009 5:19:19 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: STARWISE
Bull, I don't believe it.

White people suck.

Just ask Obobo.

64 posted on 05/08/2009 5:21:57 PM PDT by humblegunner (Where my PIE at, fool?)
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To: Polarik; LucyT; ExTexasRedhead

Hey,ya’ll,,,

Maybe it’s just me but O’Bammy’s head looks too small,,,

I don’t trust anything to do with him...:0/


65 posted on 05/08/2009 5:55:35 PM PDT by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: Jeff Head
After the war, Stalin found no reason to relax his control. Wherever he looked, he saw problems which demanded his attention and control. The government, the Party, the army, the communist ideology and the economy were all on the verge of collapse. Stalin's answer, as to be expected, was more Five Year Plans. And with the return of the Five Year Plans came the deliberate tightening of ideological control. The target became the existence of any form of western influence upon Soviet society. So, thousands of soldiers who had seen too much of the west during WW II, were sent to the GULAG and the intelligentsia was forced into retreat by party terror at the hands of the KGB.

SOURCE

I remember this period. When I was a young child, my family ended up in a number of displaced person's camps in Germany and then Italy before we came to Australia. The majority of the people in the camps were from countries that had supported Russia in the war. They all knew they could never return home, they were so afraid of Stalin, they knew what he was doing to the returning soldiers. It was no secret even then.

Returning patriots being seen as enemies of the State is nothing new. I just hope the entire military is aware of the possibilities - and have a sufficient grasp of history to be aware of the danger this administration poses.

66 posted on 05/08/2009 6:12:12 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
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To: STARWISE; LucyT; Polarik; SJackson; ExTexasRedhead; Yaelle; Yehuda; Nachum; Clintonfatigued; ...
German spokesman Thomas Steg was quoted as saying Obama may plan to visit historical places that in the widest sense are related to the different aspects of World War II - destruction and rebuilding, extermination and the breakdown of civilization.

Speaking of "destruction," according to a related FR thread posted several days ago, Obama may visit Dresden. That would be a perfect place for him to continue in his apology mode by whining about the Allied bombing of the Germans that occurred there.

67 posted on 05/08/2009 7:04:43 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: humblegunner

Ummmm .... you forgot.

TYPICAL white people.


68 posted on 05/08/2009 7:08:21 PM PDT by STARWISE (They (LIBS-STILL) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war- Richard Miniter)
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To: justiceseeker93
Speaking of "destruction," according to a related FR thread posted several days ago, Obama may visit Dresden. That would be a perfect place for him to continue in his apology mode by whining about the Allied bombing of the Germans that occurred there.

Gish, I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time a bleeding heart liberal moaned about Dresden. When you ask them, "What about Coventry?" they go "Huh?? Whut's Coventry?"

I reply, "Payback's a bitch, ain't it?"

69 posted on 05/08/2009 8:08:14 PM PDT by Polarik (Forgeries are forever)
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To: autumnraine

I think these days, unfortunaetly, everyone has their ‘price’.


70 posted on 05/08/2009 8:18:48 PM PDT by Gemsbok ( If wishes were pigs, than beggars would dine unless the swine flu.)
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To: STARWISE
The color photos look Photoshopped to me. Anyone else think this???
71 posted on 05/08/2009 9:34:56 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Polarik
...I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time a bleeding heart liberal moaned about Dresden.

You'd be richer yet if you had a dollar for every time a bleeding heart lefty moaned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

72 posted on 05/08/2009 9:50:21 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: 1COUNTER-MORTER-68
Maybe it’s just me but O’Bammy’s head looks too small,,,

That's what I meant by saying his "grill" was shrunk and he's a pinhead.

73 posted on 05/09/2009 8:16:13 AM PDT by Polarik (Forgeries are forever)
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