Barack Obama is coming under fire once again for making statements which can easily be proven false, FoxNews reports.
Speaking in Las Cruces, N.M., the Democratic presidential candidate told veterans on Memorial Day that his uncle helped liberate the Auschwitz death camp at the end of World War II.
There are two problems with what Obama said:
1-Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army.
2-Obama’s American mother was an only child.
“I had a uncle who was one of the, 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 into the attic and he didn’t leave the house for six months, right. Now obviously something 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,” he said.
A check on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site shows that Soviet forces were the first to approach Auschwitz, which was in Poland.
“On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners,” the site reads.
Republican National Committee Press Secretary Alex Conant released the following statement today on the GOP website:
“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.”
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32 Responses
librals are known to lie to get what ever they need, he fits right into that party.
perhaps he meant that the camp was liberated FROM his uncle???
As the pasuk says Vayiftach Hashem es pee haasone. There are many indications that he is a sonei yisroel but he is doing a great job at hiding his feelings about yidden. I would not trust this man as far as I can throw him.
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.”
If he knows how to lie,he is a proper politician and can be president
This is crazy. If hes going to le he can at least make it sound true!
BHO has proven himself many times over to be the most incompetent, inexperienced, major party (presumptive) nominee for the Presidency in US history.
Irrelevant of whether this was a mixup of Buchenwald and Auschwitz let us all not forget that Obama is at best a very naive person. For him to state that he is willing to meet with Hitler number two, the maniac from Iran, shows that he knows nothing about foreign affairs and does not comprehend very recent history. Appeasment never worked and will never work with people who are bent on destroying life.
he is very smart and very cagey.
not likely he would say a blatant checkable lie.
an explanation will no doubt soon appear.
Good point sammygol. But I don’t remember if even they were such a clown like BHO. Certainly no as inexperienced.
I have no reason to be backing Obama, but #4, by “Oh vays mir”, has a point.
However, to quote a post I found on another blog:
“What bothers me about this statement is not that Obama calls his great-uncle “uncle” (I do that myself), or that he doesn’t personally know that Uncle Ralph could not have liberated Auschwitz, since the Russians did that (although it definitely shows that, in his many world travels, he’s never visited Auschwitz, or probably any other concentration camp memorial), but rather:
1) he doesn’t think facts important enough to have a staff member check his old family stories before sharing them
and, more importantly
2) the point of his telling the story was not that his uncle was a hero, but rather a victim, spending several months holed up in an attic, upon his return from the war.”
Posted by: notropis at May 27, 2008 12:48 PM (nCIOU)
This blogger is referring to the rest of Obama’s statement to the veterans on Memorial Day:
“Now obviously, something 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,” Obama said. “That’s why this idea of making sure that every single veteran, when they are discharged, are screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need – that’s why it’s so important.”
This is a valid reason not to be impressed by Obama’s anecdote, even if he HAD gotten the facts right. The day Obama uses such an anecdote to raise awareness that evil exists the world, and take responsibility to pull out all the stops to fight evil – the anecdote would mean something. At this point it was just a convenient use of Jewish pain, to further himself.
the Illinois senator was actually referring to his great uncle, and he had confused Auschwitz with another concentration camp, Ohrdruf, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
I cant stand Obama but….
Since he was brought up by his grandparents I can understand when he called his great-uncle his uncle. I called all of my mothers aunts and uncles – Tanta and Uncle.
That he mixed up concentration camps… that speak to how the Holocaust really doesnt effect him.
perhaps he meant that the camp was liberated FROM his uncle???
Comment by ajewfrommonsey — May 27, 2008 @ 5:14 pm
Funny.
#8 Said:
“And Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who only became known outside his immediate family when she was 7 or 8.”
Oh lets not forget landing under fire. What fire?????
“Al Gore invented the Internet, Global Warming, Inability to Blink, Lack of Facial Expression Syndrome, and other issues too numerous to list. Jimmy the Peanut invented Apartheid in Israel, Ted Kennedy and Dr. Kevorkian invented suicide by proxy, and Sigmund Fraud – A Perfect Excuse for ANY deviance you may ever wish to have.
So, the World is full of liars, big ones, small ones, puny ones, and Grand Liars, some of whom end up in the Oval Office.”
Well said.
Both Democratic contenders have a problem with mixing up fact with fiction.I wouldn’t trust either of them. But, most politicians of every persuasion always try to pander to the ones they’re trying to get to vote for them. I don’t trust any politicians from any party to tell the truth, or to keep their promises.
Oh, grow up! Why does it always have to be about us? Quite frankly, given today’s headlines (Jewish American businessman claims he gave Olmert envelopes of cash), I wish the news was NOT about us!
Why is it illegitimate for Obama to use his uncle’s (OK, great uncle’s, same difference!) experiences as a returning veteran to call for better care for other returning veterans? That’s not standing on Jewish blood and is not demonstrating a lack of sensitivity to Jewish suffering. Other people have also suffered!
maybe it could have been his fathers brother isn’t that also considered your uncle
#20 – It’s not about us necessarily. If you want to be Head of such a Powerful Country, take the time to get your facts stratight at least while campaigning – Im Lo Achshov – Amasai????
YW EDitors:
You don’t mean “Makes” History; you mean “Creates” or “Invents” History.
When someone “makes” history, it means they did something that will be noted in historical record. Obama seems to have made something up, not made history.
Jews have to get past the “victim” role. Yes, we’ve suffered, but it’s become our identity and has caused us to overcompensate and to belittle other people. Feeling less than or more than is due to a lack of identity, which is our current state.
Among other things, it’s (taking on the victim role) is one of the reasons I believe that Jews on the whole(frum Jews included) are enamored more by gashmius and image than the average American. We feel the need to impress others and build big houses and have fancy cars, high end clothing etc.
I see that as stemming from a lack of identity.
Yes, there are many Sonei Yisroel (Obama could be one of them) but we have to move past all of the petty comments (I still don’t see why it’s Anti-Semitic).
ChanieE: I agree with you.
As for Obama and lying. Guess what? Hillary lies and so does John McCain. “kol HaAdam Kozeiv”
Let’s worry about how we (klak Yisroel) treat ourselves and others!
and the coolaid drinkers just lap it up as if it was history but thats all it is HIS-STORY
Our vets from Vietnam and the Gulf never experienced anything like the shocking scene witnessed by liberating troops at Auschwitz or any of the other “camps”. Comparing the two is idiotic. Besides, nobody even knew about PTSD back then.
Talking to the nut job in Iran is useless. If he knew his history, he’d know that the US was busy talking to the Japanese in Washington while the Japanese were busy bombing Pearl Harbor. You can’t reason with maniacs. You’ve got to fight fire with fire. Perhaps he epouses the Sharpton Method: The bad guys are allowed to have sophisticated automatic weapons and the good guy’s, in Sharpton’s case the NYPD, are only allowed to use water pistols (the small ones, not Super Soakers).
This guy is clueless and doesn’t deserve to be president. He’ll make us the laughing stock of the world. Just picture it, Jimmy Sone Yisrael Carter as sec. of state; Sharpton as VP; Jesse Hymie Town Jackson as ambassador to the UN; Jeremiah Wright as Congress’s official chaplain; Halal meat in the White House; and, the whole country coming to a halt at 4PM to kneel on mats and bow to Mecca. What a nightmare it will be chas v’shalom!
maybe he should tell his potential partner in peace talk negotiation – achmededijad (spelling???) this story.
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.”
If Hillary could make up stories left and right, why not Hussein Obama?
the elections are coming up and he needs the yiddishe votes – its too simple
The tone of some of you is completely inappropriate. Talk about overreaction.
Obama did not make this up out of nothing it seems. He mixed up Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Okay, a mistake but not a particularly big one.
Do you really think the Jewish community would not equally have been moved by the liberation of Buchenwald as of Auschwitz? The man made a mistake.
But the article makes it seem like Obama’s statement was ridiculous. Maybe the negative hostile tone of this article made more sense when it was unclear if Obama made the whole story up out of nothing. But for the editors to not issue a clarification later is poor journalism. They’ve done it elsewhere when it suits them.
And I am not an Obama supporter.
I am not an Obama supporter, either, but lambasting him over this mistake is really dirty politics at its best.
His great-uncle did take part in liberating one of Buchenwald’s camps.
So by mixing up the names of the two camps, he should be called a liar?
I agree with the previous posters that this was not a major mistake.
In point of fact, Al Gore never claimed he “invented” the internet–he actually said he helped passs the laws to fund the research which maked the present-day internet possible. (Vincent Cerf, the “father of the internet”, said that the internet would not exist as it does now if it weren’t for his help). This statement just got twisted out of context–kind of like the one about John McCain’s adopted daughter.
I am actually not an Obama supporter either; like my mother, I’d rather have someone who we know how what they’re all about. But this is really ridiculous. My teachers reffer to any concentration camp as Aushwitz, and they’re jewish. Noone calls them a liar. Did the crowd he was speaking to even hear about Ohrduf? I didn’t until today. He was talking about veterans anyway, not about WW2. sammygol, as usual, I apreciate your wit.
#24 HaKatan: Pun intended
dunno how he has so many fans this B hussein O.
all his nice & dandy talks about “CHANGE” “yes we can”, etc, are just a bunch of balloons filled with hot air .