Barack Obama tells group that his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz as World War II was ending. Read more and see photos and video below.
Barack Obama is all things to all people. He proved that again yesterday by telling a group of people that his uncle liberated Auschwitz and then had a nervous breakdown and stayed in an attic for six months. By telling this moving story Barack was able to let people know that he’s just another typical white American! This story lets everyone know that Barack can relate to Jews, Russians, the military, veterans, multi-generational Americans, people who were actually raised in the United States, the mentally ill, people with PTSS (post traumatic stress syndrome), the oppressed, people who have been subjected to experimental scientific studies which in a round about way translates into people he wants to have nationalized health care and people with eating disorders.
Even better, he one upped Hillary Clinton’s story about dodging snipper fire in Bosnia. I mean Bosnia ain’t nearly as dangerous as Auschwitz was back in the day.
Of course, Obama had to backtrack a little cause it turns out he ‘misspoke’ (that’s the latest buzzword that is generally interpreted as ‘lie’). It wasn’t his uncle, it was his great uncle. No big deal. A lot of people call male family members and all their mama’s boyfriends ‘uncle’. He gets a pass on that.
The thing that really got me was that his ‘uncle’ was in the Red Army!!!! WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT!!!! He’s done everything and been everywhere. He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii. He is ‘from the South side of Chicago’. His father is from Kenya and now we find out his ‘uncle’ was in the Soviet Army. GEEZZZ O PEEZZZZ. This guy really is every thing to everybody.
There are a couple of things I keep worrying about though. If his ‘uncle’ was in the attic for six months … did they feed him? Did they throw a steak up the attic stairs periodically? Where’d he go to the bathroom? A lot of the men who fought in Europe in World War II saw and participated in liberating the hundreds of camps that were sub-camps of the big concentration camps. Were they all in their respective attics after the war?
If Obama’s ‘uncle’ was Russian, then does that make Obama a Kenyan-Russian-Indonesian-American? If he has Russian DNA than that would explain his basic philosophy of, ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!’. Didn’t some Russian say that?
Whoops. Turns out Obama didn’t just ‘misspeak’ about how ‘great’ his ‘uncle’ was, it turns out he ‘misspoke’ about his ‘uncle’ being the Red Army too!!! Actually, his great-uncle was in the American Army and helped liberate one of the hundreds of subcamps of Buchenwald Concentration camp which apparently really is in Germany. I kinda think Obama might shoulda googled that before he told that story ….
It doesn’t really matter. All those concentration camps are the same, right? Any of us might confuse old family stories. I can understand that. Its just odd that he doesn’t know military history. I mean, wanting to be President and all. It just seems like something you might should know a little bit about. Even I knew that Auschwitz is in Poland rather than Germany and that the Russians were involved in World War II. What do you want to bet that Obama gets a pass on that as well? Everybody will be saying that its just desperate politics to try to point out that Obama doesn’t know anything about American history and is prone to public speaking gaffes. What you should be focusing on is that McCain said Sunni when he meant Shi’a (or the other way around) and that Hillary is a chronic ‘mis-speaker’. Well, okay, she really IS a habitual ‘mis-speaker’, but you know what I mean!!!
Give Obama a pass. They just want him to be President cause it’d be cool for him to be President. It doesn’t matter what he believes in or what his experience is or who he owes political favors to. None of that is important! They just want him to be President. So shut up, sit down over there in the Amen corner, take the chewing gum out of your mouth and look at him with adoration! If someone wants to fall out while he’s talking, that’s okay too.
Update: Turns out Obama has told this type of story before … only it was his grandfather in previous stories.
Obama Uncle Auschwitz Liberator – Video
May 27th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
i think he gets a pass on this one. lots of family history gets mistold. it is likely his grand uncle said he liberated a camp “like Auschwitz” which he did.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
lisab – how do you explain that in other speeches he has told the story as being his grandfather?
I already gave him a pass on confusing the family story – we all have done that. But don’t you really think that someone who wants to be President should know enough about history to have picked a concentration camp that Americans were involved in liberating?
It would be nice to be able to verify whether or not his uncle was actually in a unit that had something to do with liberating any camps, satellite camps or otherwise. At one point it was reported that his uncle was in the Navy.
Of course, it seems very possible that Obama doesn’t know the difference between the Navy and the Army.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
You would think by now he would be vewy vewy cawefull about evewything he says.
Hes hunting wabbits.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Beth,
saying he was his grandfather? no idea.
but confusing the camps would be easy enough.
the camp he was talking about was Buchenwald … that is the one his grand-uncle-father liberated … actually i had posted a picture but it was taken down …
the Auschwitz death camp was named Birkenau
Buchenwald — Birkenau … i can see the mistake being made, (Birkenau was the place germany killed many many many more people. that is the one where they killed a million people). At Buchenwald, where obama’s relative was, they killed about 56,000+). Buchenwald was a slave labour camp.
however, i think the names are similar enough that it is an easy, if unfortunate mistake to make
May 28th, 2008 at 12:58 am
just to be clear, there were at least three main camps at Auschwitz.
Auschwitz I — was the administration camp
Auschwitz II — was Birkenau the death camp
Auschwitz III — was a bunch of labour camps
of course the germans murdered a bunch of people at all of them, but Birkenau is the one people ususally mean when they talk about the death camp at Auschwitz. that is the place that was specifically built to murder people.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:16 am
Just imagine, Lisab, if it had been McCain or Bush that had said this: the media would have it plastered wall to wall 24/7. Everyone would be calling them liars, or dunces, or both. But Obama apparently gets a pass. He misspoke. Why is that?
May 28th, 2008 at 4:25 am
The Obamessiah Gaff Machine Rolls Into Auschwitz…
Can you imagine the media frenzy if it was Bush or McCain that said this? (h/t Sister Toldjah)
(CBS News) Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family legend is that, upon …
May 28th, 2008 at 5:04 am
William,
Blame Scott McClellan, not MSM, for not giving this gaff more coverage. McClellan’s book is the bombshell of the week and will dominate the news cycles for the next couple of days. Even Fox News has the Obama gaff buried on page 2.
And you need a reality check if saying the wrong camp name and not using the word “great” before the word uncle are as serious lies as all of the lies Hillary has been telling on the campaign trail about shooting guns and dodging sniper fire.
This is a case of him telling a story that he did not personally witness and getting a couple of details wrong. Worlds different than getting details of your own life story wrong!
May 28th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Yeah, this is beyond lame. It doesn’t even approach in meaningfulness Hillary’s bosnia gaffe or McCain’s own admission that the economy is not his strong suit.
Get with the program, rightpundits. Everyone else (yes, including fox) has McClellan’s bombshell right up front this morning. People know non-news when they see it, and the obama gaffe is a clear example of non-news. But rightpundits puts it at the top of the page this morning? Wow. I guess I couldn’t expect you to cover the McClellan story because it would force you to reconsider your fragile and misguided worldview.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:41 am
But Quayle misspelled potato.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Hes hunting wight wing wepublican wabbits.
I see it this way.
We all make gaffes. Once in a while. Here and there.
But you have to look at the frequency.
The odds are against Obama at this point.
If you do the math its about once a month he puts his foot in his mouth.
By the time November rolls we will all be faced with deciding if hes just plain dunb, or a really bad liar.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:09 am
I’d say Obama is a really bad liar. (He’s clearly not dumb.) Refreshing, really.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Obama’s an elitist, intellectual pig, but he sure is a dumb one!
May 28th, 2008 at 8:36 am
All of this brings up the point about whether these gaffes are a product of the near-constant media attention via 24/7 news cycles simply because more is being caught. Its like when the microphones are “accidentally” left on every time Bush visits Europe. National leaders and those running ought to be more careful, but no one can watch every word that comes out.
On an average day, how many times do you tell a story that is not 100% accurate. Often we exaggerate parts in order to make a point or even brag a little. Typically this is a no harm no foul situation, but in politics it is a problem.
The refreshing thing about the Obama gaffes is that 9 times out of 10 he does in fact restate it more correctly once it is called out (or even before it is called out). I would be more concerned if he wasted all of his time spinning his gaffes like he did with the bitter comment. I would be most concerned if he denied the comments entirely (a la McCain on his changing positions on nearly everything at this point) or if he had convinced himself that his statements were in fact the truth (a la GW…those WMDs are out there somewhere!).
And Curtis, I have no problems with the labels elitist or intellectual. Pig is just a lame slur, and dumb is flat out incorrect.
The Elmer Fudd references are quite humorous though Micky! He may pronounce his words correctly, but he has a tendency to stutter.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Well young dem.
Everything is relevant.
Obama has to be aware of the constant monotoring he is subjected to by the media as is every candidate.
And they all get the same amount of attention when they do their town hall trips or get up in front of a bunch and start stumping.
The speech , wherever and whenever will be under the spotlight more than usual when gaffes happen.
Omama seems to hit that spotlight more than anyone.
Whenever some one is trying to sell you something their speech and references have to flow and be consistant.
This guy is is trying to sell us a presidency and its not working because his speech and flubs clearly show that he cant think on his feet. And quite frankly sometimes just doesnt get it.
He just seems to figure that if he serenades us all like Barry White we’ll buy it.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Obama has only gone under the meat grinder of the national media for a few months now. Not until March or so did people start to really scrutinize what he was saying. Some of the stuff he’s been criticized for hasn’t been fair.
On this particular matter, I have NO sympathy for Obama. If you’re going to bring up the Holocaust, get the story straight.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Wow, people are really grasping at straws to attack Obama aren’t they. The facts are that he mis-spoke on the camp, but the story is true. So as LisaB says, anything else is simply folks trying to make political hay.
It’s still amusing to watch GWB supporters argue that gaffes somehow mean something.
Maybe we could get a thread started about McCain’s gaffe over the differences between Shia and Sunni?
What’s worse, mis-naming a camp, or not having the slightest freaking clue about the make-up of the mid-east?
May 28th, 2008 at 10:48 am
As long as we’re talking about gaffes, how about this one:
“I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.”
What’s worse? Obama’s mistakes, or Cheney’s?
May 28th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Micky2, good point. When I see Obama’s gaffes, it reminds me of an old saying in Tennessee, um..uh…Texas. “fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
May 28th, 2008 at 11:24 am
lisab – thanks for the history lesson, but you are missing the point.
Don’t you think someone running for President should know a LITTLE bit about history?
And don’t you think that someone running for President would vet these stories before they repeat them over and over again?
May 28th, 2008 at 11:25 am
So many excuses. Obama should never be held to the same standards as other candidates. That would be heresy!
May 28th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Fact is, he got it wrong. He should catch some flak, but we’ll all move on…
May 28th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Brit Hume actually led off with this “bombshell” last night. Too bad he didn’t play footage of McCain grinning strangely and repeatedly saying that he will never surrender in Iraq. So much for the 100 year cap I guess.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
“Don’t you think someone running for President should know a LITTLE bit about history?”
i think i explained the gaffe. Buchenwald and Birkenau have similar names. he made a mistake, but not in the substance of the story.
he will take some flak from people, including the Jewish community who may have problems with him anyway.
now if his uncle, or grand uncle, or whoever, had not liberated the camp … then yeah, it would be a disaster. but it appears the story is true except for the place names.
“And don’t you think that someone running for President would vet these stories before they repeat them over and over again?”
it is a family history story. it would be different if he had done research and made a mistake.
why my grandfather fought at Chateau Thierry and was in the “Lost Battalion” …
not sure it is true
i never met my grandfather … but i have seen his doughboy helmet 
he may have spent the entire war drinking wine in a paris brothel for all i know
May 28th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Obama’s family tree is getting too complicated. Is this the brother of his biological Marxist father, the son of a polygamist in Africa? Or the brother of his surrogate father who was a devout Muslim? Or the brother of his athiest, communist mother?
God help us if this was a great-Uncle. Could be the brother of any of the polygamist’s wives in that case.
Or maybe he just made it all up, sort of a virtual Uncle near to all of our hearts. Something tells me we haven’t heard the last of where Obama’s relative was actually stationed in Europe, if any relative was really there at all.