"Barack Obama’s campaign scrambled Tuesday to set the record straight after the Democratic presidential candidate said on Memorial Day that his uncle helped liberate the Auschwitz death camp at the end of World War II.
There were two obvious problems with the tale: Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army, and Obama’s American mother was an only child.
As the Republican National Committee seized on the discrepancies, Obama’s campaign clarified that the Illinois senator was actually referring to his “great uncle,” and that he had confused Auschwitz with another concentration camp. The campaign said he meant to refer to Ohrdruf, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.
“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,” Obama 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.”
The campaign said his great uncle, Charlie Payne, served in the 89th Infantry Division, and that the unit was among those to liberate Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945.
According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site, Ohrdruf was the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops in Germany. The site said the 89th Infantry Division was later recognized as a “liberating unit” by the museum and the Army’s Center of Military History.
The explanation from the Obama camp came after his remarks were put under the microscope by the RNC.
“Barack Obama’s dubious claim is inconsistent with world history and demands 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. Obama’s frequent exaggerations and outright distortions raise questions about his judgment and his readiness to lead as commander in chief,” said RNC Press Secretary Alex Conant."
I myself am of the opinion that Obama's Memorial Day speech where he praised our war dead then said he saw some of them in the audience, is a lot worse than his obvious avuncular misspeak. Whereas Hillary Clinton is an accomplished liar, Senator Obama doesn't quite lie on his feet as well and is usually caught on the spot instead of us having to wait for the truth to out.
Look at it this way; take everything he says as a fabrication and leave it at that. But this ability to have truck with the dearly departed is spooky.
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