Print This Post Print This Post

May

27

[updated] Righty blogs attack Obama assertion that uncle liberating Auschwitz is factually unlikely


UPDATE: From Ben Smith at Politico:

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.

ORIGINAL POST:

Daily Kos is the first lefty blog I can find (out of tens of righty blogs and news outlets) that even mentions, albeit with not much info, how Barack Obama said in a Memorial Day appearance in Las Cruces, New Mexico that his uncle helped liberate Jews from Auschwitz.

The factual problems are that his mother was reportedly an only child and the Americans didn’t liberate Auschwitz – the Russians did.

A few of the commenters at Kos suggest Obama get out there ASAP and clarify.

I think that’s very good advice.

Here is the CNN clip of where he is discussing PTSD and, trying to empathize, no doubt, he says,

I had a 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 was is that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and didn’t leave the house for six months. Right? Now obviously something had 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.

Bookmark and Share

By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:15 pm May 27th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Democrats, Elections, Jewish, Military, Politics, WH2008 

Comments

8 Responses to “[updated] Righty blogs attack Obama assertion that uncle liberating Auschwitz is factually unlikely”

  1. 1 P. Springer on May 27th, 2008 4:41 pm

    I wonder if he might have confused Auschwitz and Dachau? I agree, though, he’d better address this quickly.

  2. 2 Lynda O\\\'Neal on May 27th, 2008 4:42 pm

    Wow. Imagine if Hillary had said that. There would be hourly news updates, interviews with surviving Soviet Army vets who felt that they deserved an apology, etc.

  3. 3 Joseph on May 27th, 2008 4:48 pm

    If we have the geneological data available to link Obama and Cheney as eighth cousins then it seems likely someone could do the research to find out if Obama did have an uncle who served in Europe during the war.

    Either way, I’m pretty sure American troops didn’t make it up to Poland, so the Auschwitz part is probably not true- unless his uncle is Russian.

    But it’s a family story- not something he supposedly experienced himself (like sniper fire) – so it certainly could have been Buchenwald or one of the other camps that his uncle saw.

  4. 4 Lynda O'Neal on May 27th, 2008 4:59 pm

    It could very well be a great-uncle. I always called by great-aunt “aunt”. That’s the least problematic part of this saga. Bad fact-checking before such a major speech.

  5. 5 Oengus on May 27th, 2008 5:33 pm

    The Obama campaign later claimed that the Illinois senator was referring to his great uncle, and that he had in fact confused Auschwitz with the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp. According to the campaign, his great uncle served in the 89th Infantry Division, and the unit was among those to liberate Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945
    http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/27/recollection-of-obama-familys-service-missing-key-details/
    http://www.89infdivww2.org/ohrdruf/

    “As the story was told in my family” that actually makes it real and sincere.

  6. 6 Jill Miller Zimon on May 27th, 2008 8:47 pm

    It’s an unfortunate gaffe and one sadly that a lot of people might make unless they have personal experience with the camps or family members who did.

    The one way around it would have been to just say that he had a close relative or someone important to him as he grew up, who’d been involved in the liberation of concentration camps and that the family story was one that mirrored a story of someone who suffers from PTSD etc.

  7. 7 Joe Ritchey on May 27th, 2008 9:01 pm

    Amazing you mean a story he clearly identified as a family legend passed down to him may have had a few factual errors? Gasp!!

    Does his mean all the stories my Grandpa told me might have some factual errors or that I may not remember them accuratly.

    I’m devestated.

    Chuckles. This is much ado about nothing. Rightys gasping for straws.

  8. 8 Jill Miller Zimon on May 27th, 2008 9:15 pm

    You may be “devestated” but you are also a lousy speller. :)

Leave a Reply




"));