Obama mistaken on name of Nazi death camp

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.

Comments

[cowgirlblues]

Well-how come no one is blaming Hillary for this-1 week on his general election campaign, and here we have the pandering for the jewish vote-backfired, throw in some mismanagement of the facts, are you listening superdelegates???? watch the democratic party disolve and be remade after this election fiasco. I am going to switch to independant until the party cleans house and restores some common sense.

[wmbear]

MY GOD, THEN HE'S TOTALLY UNFIT FOR OFFICE...

I'm switching my vote to McCain (who only confuses Iran and Iraq, Shiite and Sunni....)

[LeftLeanWing]

The Washington-Post Fact-Checker gave Obama 4-pinochios out of 4 for not stating that it was his great-uncle not an uncle and for saying Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald. They did reduce it to 3-pinc. later on.

While the Bosnia story got 2-pinnocios out 4.

Go figure ?

This is SO a non-story that those who keep using this as proof of Obama 'poor judgement' appear to be juvenile opportunist For Pete's sake he got the name of a concentration camp wrong from family history and lore.

[lisakaz2]

That's a good point. Which one is more relevant to us HERE AND NOW? I can't tell you how many times students get details like this wrong when they're doing a paper on Primo Levi's "Survival in Auschwitz" (like not seeing the Soviets liberated the camp). Given students can't get this stuff right when the book is in front of 'em and that Auschwitz is typically named first even though it wasn't the first camp opened in the 30s, I think the Post is quite azz-backwards in its ratings.

And I'M a history PhD. Talk about mountain out of a molehill. But Hill is okay for her RFK line I bet? Incredible.

[AndrewInToronto]

There is also the difference between concentration camps and extermination camps, the former being more in the west while the latter was more in fascist occupied Poland, the Soviet Union.... This was something which the IMT judges had problems with during the Nuremberg trial, granted that details of this gross injustice was relatively new to many at the time.

[MadMadamMin]

A few years ago I taped a couple of hours of my father talking about the years he spent in a POW camp. I remember the name of the prison because I edited the tape. But, that"s not what I think of when something prompts the memory of a 20 year boy digging a grave, one shovel full at a time, the day before he is to be killed. I wonder how many hours in his mind Barack has sat in the attic with his uncle? That he even goes there will make a difference to us all.

"The horror."

[Grannysue]

Oh good Grief, he couldn't remember the name of which death camp his Uncle helped to free, the entire story is true except he got the names of the camp mixed up. So, how does that compare with her honor telling everyone how she had to "dodge bullets over Bosnia", while dragging her Daughter behind her????? The GOP and Clinton supporters are desperate, get over yourselves.

[paganmist]

This is obviously a conspiracy and a cover up and a proof that Obama is not good for this country and that he has never done anything right and that Hillary is so much better in every way. He is gaffe-tastic. Obama is a gaffe-tard.

57 states? He'd LIKE us to think that's a mistake. Turns out there are FIFTY SEVEN STATES OF ISLAM. His Secret Muslim roots showing? You be the judge!

Auschwitz? Now he's trying to say his family's from Russia!? Some people will claim they're from anywhere just to get attention!

Sweetie? Just because he's got a habit of calling his daughters or wife sweetie doesn't mean he's got any right to accidentally call anyone else that! Maybe if he wasn't a normal person who makes mistakes, he wouldn't be such a SEXIST!

These mistakes Obama keeps making just proves once and for all that he can not win in the general election, no matter what the polls say. Unless the polls say that he's losing, in which case they're RIGHT.

[abby4ever]

***This is obviously a conspiracy and a cover up and a proof that Obama is not good for this country...***

You sound like Bill. How is using the wrong name a conspiuracy and a cover up? As for 'sweetie' being sexist, sometimes it will be and sometimes it won't be. It depends.

One thing I know. All of us are getting obsessed with words at the expense of issues. Word-parsing is becoming a national pasttime.

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

"One thing I know. All of us are getting obsessed with words at the expense of issues"

Sometimes it blinds us to works of satire ;)

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

Beautifully done :D

[nottoworry]

Go back and think on McCain's errors over the last 2 months, especially the last one. Gives you some perspective!!

[whsmith]

this sounds like a massive cover up, Obama better drop out now.

[JohnIII]

Maybe it's just old age getting to him.

[DesertLight]

Time to start adding up the lies.

[LeftLeanWing]

0 + 0 = 0

[DMM1029]

This is like confusing Hiroshima with Nagasaki. What idiots the MSM have become. What is the big deal?

[klt]

I can;t believe that Saun Anderson on CNN likened this to Clinton's lie about Bosnia sniper fire.

[wmbear]

THEY'RE JUST PLAYING GOTCHA POLITICS...

Except that the gotchas are all against the Democrats while McCain gets a free pass on everything including his lobbyist connections and a lot worse....

[USAisEVIL]

Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Abu Ghraib and GITMO. It is all very confusing, and easy to see how Obama might mix them up. Has Obama stated that he will close down the two camps that are still open?

[HerbTee]

This is such a non-issue! The way the MSM is behaving, you"d think Obama said HE was at Auschwitz freeing the concentration camp victims himself (eyes rolling)! I had to laugh at the stupidity of MSM outlets questioning whether Obama"s Auschwitz misstatement (not an intentional lie) was equivalent to HRC"s "Bosnia Sniper Fire" intentional lies¦which she told multiple times.

Anyone can unintentionally misspeak when recalling a historical event experienced by someone else (a friend, a relative, etc.) This kind of thing happens sometimes to all of us, not just to politicians. IMO, this non-issue would be a lie if Obama stated multiple times that his grandfather and grand-uncle served in WWII when they did not, Obama KNEW they did not, but kept telling the story again and again regardless. I would call that lying rather than misspeaking.

It must be slow news in some MSM outlets to harp on this issue. Hopefully, this incident should place Obama"s speechwriters and research staff on notice to be more careful. It"s ironic the Clintons tell bold faced lies constantly to the public and the MSM and get free passes. Obama makes a unintentional misstatement about a location during his grand-uncle"s military service during WWII and press outlets jump all over him! There was a HuffPost article recently whether Obama was getting favorably biased media coverage. Making national news about this small non-issue clearly proves he does not!

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

It's worth remebering that the Death Camp at Auschwitz (since Auschwitz I was the administration centre) was properly named Auschwitz-Birkenau, often just Birkenau, I could see how, learning the story about one's great uncle who liberated a simerly sounding Buchenwald, one might say the wrong name.

Ulitmately though the story is true regarless of the name of the particular camp.

[lisakaz2]

There were dozens of camps, too. There's Bergen-Belsen too (where Anne Frank died).

[eladora]

He needs to be more careful. The opponents will stop at nothing when he makes this kind of error to label him as a misspeaker, mainly because their candidate cannot get the factions right in Iraq. He needs to have proofers and proofers go over his stuff.

[gene1138]

A concentration camp is a concentration camp. Whatever the name, they are all equally vile. To nitpick over this is just sad.

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

Not nit picking but actually there was a distinction, somne were straight extermination campos while others were extermination through labour camps.