Obama misspeaks. Where in the world is Auschwitz?

[TacticalPeek]

Candidate Watch

Where in the world is Auschwitz?

"I had an 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 is that when he came home he just went up in the attic and he didn't leave the house for six months."
--Barack Obama, Memorial Day speech, Las Cruces, NM.

In an attempt to burnish his credentials with America's veterans, Barack Obama has frequently talked about his grandfather "who served in Patton's army." He has now added a new episode to his World War II repertoire: the uncle who liberated Auschwitz. Unfortunately, the story shows that the presumptive Democratic nominee has a poor grasp of European history and geography.
The Facts

UPDATED FRIDAY 5:30 P.M.

Auschwitz is located in southern Poland, near the city of Krakow. It was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. At the time, U.S. armies were still on the western borders of Germany, a thousand miles away, regrouping after the Battle of the Bulge. The Americans had not even crossed the Rhine at this point.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/where_in_the_world_is_auschwit.html


More ad fodder for 'untrustworthy'.

:dem:

[rockymountaindem]

1. I'm gonna give it 2 minutes before everybody comes in here and points out what a jerk you're being

Not to mention harping on a minor point.

[JoFerret]

80. Remind you of sniper fire at all?

.

[rockymountaindem]

83. No

If someone shot at me, I'd remember it. Obama's little mistake was just a mix-up of two practically synonymous places surrounding an event that happened to someone else over 60 years ago.

[helderheid]

106. It would if he'd claimed to be that soldier.

[roguevalley]

86. it is the lowest form of scum sucking to take the holocaust and its

aftermath, which his great uncle did participate in regarding liberating camps and use it as a political wedge issue. the OP has no soul. Untrustworthy? Because he confused the camp? His great uncle WAS a part of the camp liberation effort. You, OP, are beneath contempt. You need to examine your conscience. If you can find it.

[JoFerret]

96. Amusing. OUTRAGE. POUTRAGE and FAUXTRAGE

Why did he bring this up in the first place? Just to bungle it and make a stir?
His great uncle? Jesus....how far down the family line do we need to go now.


All too silly. rather like so much of what exercises the lunatics who support any of the candidates.
Outrage. Poutrage. Fauxtrage. From the candidate who makes stuff up, gets stuff wrong to the people who pounce on it it. And then those who get upset back.

It's all pathetic.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. It turns out it was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz.

Makes you look pretty dumb, doesn't it?

[bhikkhu]

44. And his great uncle was in the 89th Infantry

which was the first of our troops to liberate a nazi concentration camp.

Obama's family is rightly proud of this story, and it is a part of the story of the "Greatest Generation". Screwing with them to score political points is a bad idea, whether you you feel justified or not.

[SoonerPride]

3. Sniper fire! Sniper fire!

You really need help.

[Tribetime]

4. yawn...ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[DevonRex]

5. Did you SEE the other thread and simply chose to repost shit? nt

[Kittycat]

10. Shit is all they have.

When they tore out the kitchen sink, it caused a break in the disposal line, which is sending sewage up all over our board :(

Next week we're calling in the maids to clean up. I'm donating bleach, vinegar and a mop. If you have a bucket and some old rags - please bring them along.

[DevonRex]

12. Yep. Shit is all they have. Makes me ill. nt

[iconicgnom]

22. I can donate 2 hazmat suits and a 45 gal drum of Amax Safesolv 378

[corkhead]

6. so why the fuck are you posting it here?

[Mass]

7. I am curious to see if the reporter noticed the error before the GOP sent its PR.

[Bright Eyes]

8. I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of sniper fire.

[tokenlib]

9. And some of the Auschwitz prisoners had been sent to Buchenwald....

...so there.... it was a misspeak--but essentially true except for the name switch.

[iamahaingttta]

11. Ooops!

Obama screwed up.
Oh well!
Wasn't the first time, won't be the last.
Ooops!

(oh... and by the way... you're being a jerk!)

[roguevalley]

87. soulless. completely dead and soulless.

[still_one]

13. Untrustworthy, is the correct spelling. It has nothing to do with being trustworthy

but I understand the sparring going on between the respective sides

[grasswire]

14. oboy

He's obviously a "congenital liar."

[msallied]

92. LMAO!

[FVZA_Colonel]

15. Really, you're still going with this?

Come on.

[Richard Steele]

16. Got the memo late, did ya?

Pfft.

[Indenturedebtor]

17. As a Jew I now cannot vote for him!

Way to go HRC supporter! I was all fired up and ready to go and vote for the guy who I think has the greatest chances of turning our country around and uniting us all to a common American purpose.

But now that Obama has made a simple mistake regarding the intricacies of every single concentration camp that was liberated in WWII, I know that he is secretly a Muslim Manchuran Candidate who worships in a Black Extremist Church, and eats Jewish babies on the weekends while smacking random women on teh street with a giant rubber gas powered phallus.

thank you for opening my eyes!

McBoosh in 08!

Come on guys lets lose this thing!

Get out there and salt the earth! WOOOHOOOOOOOO :bounce:

------------------

You = The Suck.

[rucky]

54. Fired up

ready to fail!

[papapi]

57. WooHoo!!! Kick some GOP ass!!!

:woohoo:

[Erin Elizabeth]

84. OMG this made me laugh so hard

I nearly woke my husband up and definitely woke up the now very grumpy cat. You are the opposite of the suck!

[msallied]

94. This is the best post I've read in years. YEARS!

[Hutzpa]

18. ***** NEWSFLASH: Grow up ***** eom

[iamjoy]

19. After This - I Don't Trust Obama

that is, I don't trust Obama as a source of WWII history.

and if you can't point to where Auschwitz used to be on a map, you have no call criticizing Obama.

[blogslut]

20. You're late

The other guys got here before you and they ate all the cake.

[blonndee]

21. Desperation

(With thanks and apologies to Carly Simon)

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway, yay
And I wonder if I'm really a contender now
Or just chasin' after some finer day

Desperation, desperation
Is makin' me late
Is keepin' me waitin'

...

Those were the good old days
And stay right here 'cause those were the good old days
Those were the good old days
Those were the good old days
Those were the good old days
Those were the good old days

[TacticalPeek]

23. 20 replies that reveal only the underlying anxiety of the posters.

My, what DU has become.

[sniffa]

24. Here's another post

I don't suffer from anxiety, as much as exhaustion.

Shine on you crazy diamond. :patriot:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. Haven't you made enough of a fool of yourself for one day?

You know, the first rule of hole digging is to stop digging holes.

[DevonRex]

29. LOL! Apparently he can't get enough of making a fool of himself. nt

[thereismore]

27. Or maybe they reveal how sick we are of your bullshit. Igged. nt

[Bicoastal]

28. You're right. 'Twas 20 replies more than the OP deserved.

Thanks for admitting to it! Next time we'll just ignore you completely, 'K?

[beachmom]

31. No, you are a smear artist, and you are "Higginsboating" Obama's great uncle

Who liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohrdruf_forced_labor_camp

The ghastly nature of their discovery led General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, to visit the camp on April 12, with Generals George S. Patton and Omar Bradley. After his visit, Eisenhower cabled General George C. Marshall, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, describing his trip to Ohrdruf:

. . .the most interesting--although horrible--sight that I encountered during the trip was a visit to a German internment camp near Gotha. The things I saw beggar description. While I was touring the camp I encountered three men who had been inmates and by one ruse or another had made their escape. I interviewed them through an interpreter. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said that he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'

[FVZA_Colonel]

34. What do we have to be anxious about?

It was a stupid slip of the tongue, nothing more.

[K Gardner]

36. What's the difference between Auschwitz and Buchenwald.. jerk.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

39. There's probably at least twice as many now. And not a single rec.

Revealing the underlying suckage and epic failure of your OP.

And you.

[TahitiNut]

52. You'd think you'd learn. Guess not ...

Trolling with your mouth open. Jerk.

[Erin Elizabeth]

85. As I said in another thread, several years ago

I had the details of my own grandfather's WWII service mixed up in my head. He certainly was there, he certainly did do what I thought he did, but I had the area wrong and I had the aircraft wrong. My mother corrected me a while back: he flew B-24 bombers over north Africa. But gosh, it's a good thing I never ran for president and repeated the incorrect details I had mixed up in my head, right? Because that would CERTAINLY mean I wasn't qualified to be president!

:eyes:

Come on. THAT is an example of misspeaking. Or mis-knowing in the first place (he might very well have been told wrong, but his great-uncle really did help liberate the first camp--Buchenwald).

But making up a story about being under sniper fire when you aren't is an example of LYING.

[jefferson_dem]

26. The only thing "untrustworthy" in this thread is your OP.

Ack.

[PoliticalAmazon]

30. My father was a German translator in WWII. He wasn't at the camps...

but interviewed some of the survivors afterward. That was a big part of his PTSD burden which he carried until the day he died

The Holocaust is not a laughing matter. It's not to be used as a cheap political attack.

Makes me yearn for the good ol' days when Hillary's supporters were just advocating assassination as a campaign strategy.

[AZ Criminal JD]

66. Obama is using the Holocaust to try and score a cheap political point.

You are right, it is no laughing matter.

[FredScuttle]

70. No...actually he was trying to make a serious point about PTSD

that is being lost in this bullshit about "which concentration camp was he referring to?"

[roguevalley]

88. you have no soul.

[CaptJasHook]

32. Excellent work. I am sure McCain is paying you well.

Let's keep tearing down the candidate. The Rethuglicans don't even need SBV4T.


What rhymes with thick?

[AZBlue]

73. You mean Clinton?

Oh wait...same thing.

[CaptJasHook]

74. Can anyone tell the difference these days?

[AZ Criminal JD]

81. Something you don't have.

[The Stranger]

33. Despicable.

Both Patton's Third Army and the U.S. Seventh Army liberated concentration camps. To make light of that or use it to attack Obama is beneath contempt.

I can only offer you my pity.

[southern_belle]

35. I bet you feel dumb, now. n/t

[rockymountaindem]

37. I'll take that bet

The bar around here for shame is extremely low these days.

[graycem]

38. This is pretty low.

You should be ashamed.

[cliffordu]

40. Hmm....My family has myth mixed with truth, too.

My aunts claimed an uncle was a sheriff - I find out he was just a jailer.

All families have these stories. If you think yours doesn't, you're not digging far enough.

If Obama said he was under sniper fire in Tuzla, you'd have something.



Edit for:

Patton's army did liberate Buchenwald and Ohrdruf. Dachau. as well.


Auschwitz was the biggest and the most publicized. I believe it was the first discovered, too. Discovered and liberated by the Soviets.

[Divine Discontent]

41. now, if he'd made up the relative, you'd have SOMETHING, this is just bottom of the barrel pathetic

how could you post something like this? it's a geographical or minor memory error - not an error where he's making up the relative.

sheesh... it's nothing compared to making up SNIPER FIRE going off and racing to a vehicle off a plane, to keep from getting hit!


shameful... just shameful.

[AllentownJake]

42. My parents

both served in Vietnam. Other than Saigon I can't tell you a damn thing about where they served I just know they served in Vietnam.

Buchenwald vs Auschwitz were both terrible places and he got confused what his uncle saw.

At least he didn't confuse being there like certain ex-presidents who rethugs want to be on the $10 bill did in the 80s because that President couldn't figure out movies he acted in and real life.

[scheming daemons]

43. Oops... Obama's story is completely true.... except the camp was a different one...... Try again.

No fodder for "untrustworthy". Obama told the truth.

[Bluenorthwest]

45. Dick Cheney

Sitting slumped and bored in a grotesque ski parka at the solem memorial at Auschwitz to mark 60 years since the liberation of the camps. Now that is a sight to call untrustworthy. Obama, maybe he should have double checked his notes, but Cheney, sitting there with that dispicalbe glare in that loud tourista jacket, the other world leaders in dark and somber clothing, that is something to remember and to hold up for contempt.
I'll never forget the sight of Cheney that day. It was disgusting to share a nationality with him.

[barb162]

46. Bambi is pretty loosey-goosey with the facts.

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FVZA_Colonel]

50. Self-Delete.

Nevermind.

[Bicoastal]

51. "Bambi?" Cute. Aren't you the sort who raise hell at "Shillary," "Shrillary," and the like...

...but think nothing of calling our candidate all sorts of demeaning names?

You great hypocrite.

[cali]

98. not at all. He made what was clearly an honest mistake about which

camp his uncle helped liberate. Granted, it doesn't say much for his knowledge of WWII detail, but it's an inconsequential mistake.

Even hillypoo knows better than to attack him on this. you hillypoobots need to follow your dear goddess of war's lead on this.

[Eric J in MN]

48. Not knowing which concentration camp....

...his grandfather's brother liberated doesn't mean "the presumptive Democratic nominee has a poor grasp of European history and geography."

If Michael Dobbs ever makes a mistake about history, I hope that he's judged as harshly.

[Lucky 13]

49. Obama's campaign released a statement. LINK:

It turns out his great-uncle liberated Buchenwald.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Obamas_World_War_II_history.html

[noel711]

53. Auschwitz-Birkenau are the same...

But it would be very easy for someone unfamiliar with German to confuse "Birkenau" with Buchenwald...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz

It was at Auschwitz where Anne Frank died...

[anonymous171]

55. "Obama says he's trustworthy. He also says his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz.

When, in reality, his uncle helped liberate BUCHENWALD!" Yep. I can see the ad right now :eyes:

[glitch]

78. Lol! And they are going for it! Oh dear oh dear, it just keeps getting sadder. nt

[Straight Shooter]

56. In Obama's famous speech, he indicates that his grandfather "heard" of the liberation.

My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton’s army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama's_Iraq_Speech

Did his grandfather hear of this from his great uncle? If so, why didn't Barack mention his great uncle in his speech? It would have been a natural inclusion to bolster the point he was making.

Also, I may be mistaken, but it's my understanding that Treblinka, an absolute extermination camp, was never "liberated" and so there were no heroic rescues per se, other than being called upon to deal with the ghastly remains ...

In August of 1943, the prisoners in the work details rebelled. They seized small arms, sprayed kerosene on all the buildings and set them ablaze. In the confusion, many German soldiers were killed but many more prisoners perished. Of 1,500 prisoners, only 40 are known to have survived the revolt. The camp ceased operation. Camp commander Kurt Franz recalled during his testimonies: "After the uprising in August 1943 I ran the camp single-handedly for a month; however, during that period no gassings were undertaken. It was during that period that the original camp was leveled off and lupins were planted." There was also a revolt at Sobibór two months later.

After the revolt, it was decided to shut down the death camp and shoot the last of the Jewish prisoners . The camp had been badly damaged by the fire, and the murder of the Polish Jews was also largely complete. Odilo Globocnik wrote to Himmler: "I have on October 19, 1943, completed Operation Reinhard, and have dissolved all the camps." The final group of about thirty Jewish girls at Treblinka were shot at the end of November.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka_extermination_camp

[chascarrillo]

59. Did he say that anyone liberated Treblinka? No.

Find another disgusting talking point to test out on us.

[Straight Shooter]

62. WTF are you up in arms about?

I thought perhaps some people on DU might appreciate a little history behind Treblinka. Do try to find some help for your KDS.

[chascarrillo]

65. Don't be disingenuous.

[Straight Shooter]

67. Don't be paranoid. n/t

[papapi]

60. Death is liberation. Especially for someone enduring the unmentionable....

...atrocities of the Nazis. Give it up. It's a non-starter.

[Straight Shooter]

63. Death is not liberation. Death is death. n/t

[FVZA_Colonel]

61. Interesting, but

the facts stand that a relative did help liberate a concentration camp, the first one to be liberated by American troups. It's been confirmed.


I wish to apologize for what I wrote earlier: I did not read it sufficiently and read it as an attempt to continue this political attack. Again, I apologize.

[Straight Shooter]

64. Thank you. You got my point.

I spent some time researching on Treblinka before I posted specific text, because it is not a well-recognized name, although it was certainly one of the most horrifying concentration camps as it had one agenda only: brutal exploitation and extermination.

[papapi]

58. SPEAK LOUDER IF YOU MUST! I can hardly hear you over the sniper fire.

[indimuse]

68. His weaknesses are starting to BEAM!

.

[roguevalley]

89. No. You are just hallucinating. Must be all the Jim Beam your girl

guzzles.

[Carrieyazel]

69. This is a dumb mistake by Obama. Auschwitz and Buchenwald were not even in the same country!

And great uncle and uncle are not the same thing. If he would have said "the first concentration camp" or "Buchenwald" he would have been all right.

I think its more ad fodder for being not ready for prime time. This is McCain he's going up against, not Hillary, the mediocre politician who makes tons of mistakes.

[roguevalley]

90. so, mistaking a name in a family story makes you not ready for

prime time? McCain called his wife a c**t in front of reporters and Hillary got a gold star in Bosnia. Mistaking which prison camp your uncle liberated when he ACTUALLY DID THE DEED is a lot different. truly.

[zulchzulu]

95. Yeah...at least that sniper fire story panned out, huh...

I can see McSame cracking his reptilian smile and trying to make an issue of Buchenwald and Auschwitz... yeah, indies go for shit like that...




:sarcasm:

[Gore1FL]

71. You should probably read this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6150534

and maybe apologze to it's original poster.

[IsItJustMe]

72. Gotcha politics as played by Hil and the Republicans. Beyond fricken sad.

[K8-EEE]

77. Really, REALLY beyond sad.

I can't believe how Freepy some of these GOTCHA!!! people are!

[2rth2pwr]

93. Were you this upset when Clinon was accused of wanting to murder Obama?

[Forkboy]

105. The inverse also applies then. Didn't you think people were overreacting to that, as you are here?

[gateley]

75. THIS is a valid example of misspeaking.

"We landed under sniper fire and had to run, heads down, from our plane." Isn't.

[cui bono]

76. Try to keep up.

You really should if you're going to try to smear people over nothing.

:eyes:

[marshall]

79. He doesn't know that much about his mother's side of the family

It is not surprising that he would struggle to recall details about this uncle.
Maybe we can look forward to a book about that side of his family. He does have a fascinating background, all around.

[lsusteel]

82. Try again

who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps


1. He was one of the first AMERICAN troops

2. He liberated concentration "CAMPS."

Two separate thoughts.

[zulchzulu]

91. Wow! He mentioned Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald! They were such different death camps!!!!

And here's Buchenwald! HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!



What was he thinking? They are obviously so fucking different...right?

:puke:

[WinkyDink]

100. Put a warning next time. Also, Auschwitz IS the most famous, notorious, if you will.

"Buchenwald" does not resonate in the public as much.

[HuffleClaw]

97. get used to it

this is EXACTLY the sort of thing the media will focus on. not on policy, but the teensiest little missteps until in the public eye he's become a buffoon.

[Douglas Carpenter]

99. how sick, evil and twisted of the GOP to attack Sen. Obama for his heroic Uncle

As this Los Angeles Times article put it:

"The Obama campaign soon acknowledged that the Democratic candidate made a mistake. It explained that Obama’s great-uncle was in the 89th Infantry Division that helped liberate another notorious death camp, Buchenwald. Obama, the campaign said, “is proud of the service of his grandfather and uncles in World War II -- especially the fact that his great-uncle was part of liberating of one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald.”

All of which raises the question: What's worse, Obama's apparent gaffe or the RNC pouncing on a Holocaust-related historical mistake for political advantage?"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/05/the-nazi-death.html

[Ian_rd]

101. Desperate, desperate, desperate.

Not Auschwitz, but a different concentration camp. Not his uncle, but his great uncle. This is so pathetically weak, even compared to other pointless gotchas.

[yellowcanine]

102. "Poor grasp of European history"..... How many people know that Auschwitz was liberated by the

Soviet Army and Buchenwald was liberated by the U.S. Army? Please. It is an easy mistake to make, particularly recalling a family story - which may have in fact been wrong. I suspect many of the Obama detractors pouncing on this story would not have known the relevant details themselves.


And the story had nothing to do with "burnishing his credentials with veterans". It was a Memorial Day tribute to an uncle who had served in WWII.

[Liberal In Texas]

103. Thanks for promoting RW talking points.

Jerk.

[Max_powers94]

104. hmmmm Obama misspeaks or Hillary Lies....

I go with Obama misspeaks thank you ;)