Obama camp on Auschwitz: Sorry, he meant Ohrdruf
posted at 5:07 pm on May 27, 2008 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | regular view
As suspected, it was his great-uncle he had in mind, not his uncle, and the camp wasn’t Auschwitz but one of the ones Patton’s army liberated, namely, the Ohrdruf subcamp at Buchenwald. Look at the photos at Wikipedia and you’ll understand why he might have needed six months in the attic.
Update (Ed): We talked about this on the show today, and I figured it would turn out to be one of the Western camps instead of a flat-out lie. However, this demonstrates again that Barack Obama has a gaffe problem, especially when speaking extemporaneously. If he’s going to tell personal anecdotes on the campaign trail, he’d better demonstrate a passable knowledge of the subject matter when he does so.
Update: The Washington Post’s Fact Checker isn’t feeling very generous:
Granted, it is getting late in the campaign. The candidates are tired, and prone to making silly mistakes. Many Americans might have problems distinguishing Buchenwald and Ohrdruf from Auschwitz. But should we not expect more from a Harvard-educated presidential candidate? Is it too much to ask that an aspiring commander-in-chief knows (1) that Auschwitz (like many of the other Nazi death camps) is in Poland, and (2) that the eastern advance of the U.S. Army in World War II stopped on the river Elbe? Let me know what you think.
Three Pinocchios … ouch.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages:
give BO a break, he was under heavy sniper fire at the time.
kirkill on May 27, 2008 at 5:09 PM
Auschwitz, Ohrdruf….yeah, they look and sound so much alike. I can see how easy of a mistake that is to make.
tomk59 on May 27, 2008 at 5:12 PM
I can’t wait to see how long it takes for Obama to misspell a vegetable.
wise_man on May 27, 2008 at 5:13 PM
Is he now using the brother of his racist grandmother who he used last month? Who else on your mother’s side is next Barry?
RobCon on May 27, 2008 at 5:14 PM
Just goes to show history and foreign policy are not Obama’s strong suits
William Amos on May 27, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Yeah, Bambi’s a lightweight and not fit for the office. But every time I see pictures like that I want to pry Achmadinnerjacket’s eyes open Clockwork Orange style and make him take a loooong look. It wouldn’t do any good, he’d still deny it, but he needs it anyway.
trubble on May 27, 2008 at 5:17 PM
My father, who was with the 42 “Rainbow” division, arrived at Dachau the day after it was liberated. He was a medic. He said he blocked out the memories of it mostly. Just a few freeze framed images stayed with him. So, it was a powerful experience; however, staying in your house for six months once you were rotated home seems a bit much and what exactly effect did this Great Uncle suffer before he was rotated home? Was there a record of metal disability? A Section 8 ?
This seems to be a story that is needlessly embelished as well as inaccurately presented.
KW64 on May 27, 2008 at 5:17 PM
dam mister potater head..how you spell tater
rico101 on May 27, 2008 at 5:17 PM
The experience of this relative was so deeply ingrained in Sen. Obama’s character and psyche… that he can’t recall who exactly it was or where it happened?
major john on May 27, 2008 at 5:18 PM
I thought it was something like that. Hey, my Dad was at Nagasaki days after the place was nuked. He was at sea waiting to invade. I grew up hearing that story and when you grow up hearing something like that the details sometimes escape you.
But, if I was running for President and talking to a bunch of vets, I would make sure I was right.
Can you imagine the reaction if Bush had made a mistake in a speech like this?
Bush lied……
Terrye on May 27, 2008 at 5:18 PM
mental not metal
KW64 on May 27, 2008 at 5:18 PM
I just hope that man and the fish can peacefully co-exist, and that social security remains a government program.
bayam on May 27, 2008 at 5:19 PM
The real sad part here is not that he misquoted the name of the death camp, its that the next possible President of this country doesn’t know that we didn’t liberate Auschwitz?
How have we gotten to the point that history is so unimportant that the 50/50 possible next President doesn’t even know what we did in WW2.
What a disgrace.
Vincenzo on May 27, 2008 at 5:19 PM
Not my uncle…but my great uncle.
Not Auschwitz…but Ohrdruf.
But other than that…
It’s kind of like saying he drives a yellow Porsche when it’s really a Chevy Suburban: Hey, they both have four wheels and how is questioning my recollection doing my kids any good…..?
JohnTant on May 27, 2008 at 5:20 PM
This is going to harm the kids talking about their great-great-uncle.
Sergei on May 27, 2008 at 5:21 PM
According to a commenter at the Politico, he’s still alive. Wonder if this elderly great-uncle veteran will be voting for Obama. I sure hope somebody asks him.
JiangxiDad on May 27, 2008 at 5:23 PM
I was more interested in B. Husseins ability to see fallen heros in the crowd. My father passed in 1985. I wonder if Barrack could arrange a meeting. If he could see my dad, he surely would be able to hear him.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft on May 27, 2008 at 5:23 PM
KW64,
I wouldn’t put it past Obama to be exaggerating, but different people are affected differently by that type of event. My father-in-law was in the SeaBees, and was involved in doing clean-up/mass graves with the Japanese dead on a couple of the islands the Marines took. (I don’t know which ones, he never talked about it.) He had emotional problems for several years after the war.
exhelodrvr on May 27, 2008 at 5:23 PM
It’s seared, seared into someone’s memory.
Just not sure who.
JammieWearingFool on May 27, 2008 at 5:23 PM
A “Community Organizer™” who doesn’t know much of the history of the community he’s trying to organize.
mred on May 27, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Obama’s great-uncle: American hero.
Obama himself: hesitant to put on an American flag pin.
Like Ron Reagan (Jr.), proof that greatness is not genetic.
emailnuevo on May 27, 2008 at 5:26 PM
I’d argue that it’s more like confusing a Porsche for a Viper or some other sports car, basically confusing the two just because they’re both sporty.
Either way, if you’re running for president of NASCAR (or some other car association), you should be called on it.
The uncle/great uncle thing doesn’t bother me personally. When I had great aunts (I’ve only known two), I just called them Aunt Wilma and Aunt Thelma even when talking to other people. If I wanted to clarify that they weren’t actually siblings of either parent, then I’d do so afterwards and still just call them Aunt.
It wouldn’t surprise me if other people have done the same.
Esthier on May 27, 2008 at 5:26 PM
You know what it tells me as a family genealogist?
That the stories of his grandfather, great-uncle or whoever, who served in the American military were of no importance or consequence to Obama until he needed them to add credibility to his pandering on the campaign trail. Now he has the DNA of a white WW2 veteran who was at the liberation of a Jewish concentration camp. That’s the only way he can compete with a genuine war hero.
It also tells me that still Obama believes that he is going to get a pass from the media or he surely would have learned his lesson by now.
Texas Gal on May 27, 2008 at 5:27 PM
“Hey, did you know my Uncle liberated a death camp in Aushwitz?”
“Oops – i was right about everything, except it’s not my Uncle but Great-Uncle, not Aushwitz but Ohrdruf, and it’s not a death camp but a concentration camp. Nothing to see here – now move along, you damn crackas”
Aristotle on May 27, 2008 at 5:27 PM
did you know Michelle Obama’s great aunt (pronounced awnt NOT ant) ..was Anne Frank ?? Or was that Aretha Franklin ??
Who cares, same difference. OOffaahh..
redrock on May 27, 2008 at 5:28 PM
Was he from the family side of his rayyycis’ grandmother who went under the bus?
Aristotle on May 27, 2008 at 5:28 PM
He wanted combat cred and helping Jews cred. He doesn’t have any himself and his opponent (McCain) is lousy with it.
He attempted to gleen some from a relative and, in trying to make the relationship closer and the mission more noteworthy (or at least well-known) he gaffed again.
29Victor on May 27, 2008 at 5:30 PM
It’s that short term memory loss from the Maui Wowie rearing it’s ugly head again.
He shouldn’t have inhaled.
NTWR on May 27, 2008 at 5:33 PM
Obama, overheard in the White House, 2009:
“Ok, we need to act. Bomb I- … err, Israel, right?”
Niko on May 27, 2008 at 5:34 PM
His knowledge of geography, civics, and the economy aren’t too spiffy, either.
By the way, check out the Politico comments. They’re basically along the lines of “Take that RNC!” and, I quote, “So THERE, right-wing scumbags! Funny too how no neocons ever served in the military….”. Good thing McCain’s not considered a neocon.
amerpundit on May 27, 2008 at 5:34 PM
What are the chances that the uncle was a truck driver or something behind the lines and never actually saw the camp, just was in the area or something, ala Harkin? Just askin’.
Bishop on May 27, 2008 at 5:37 PM
There’s a lot of embellishment in family lore and I noticed that Obama gave himself wiggle room when he said “a story in the family”. He used that story to give himself credibility on Memorial Day about military issues.
FWIW … ancestry.com has their military records online and free access until May 31st. A name and a location would get you a WW2 registration card and freedom of information would get you a record at the national archives, unless of course you are a descendant of the person of record.
Texas Gal on May 27, 2008 at 5:41 PM
Is this great-uncle Obama’s only surviving relative in the US? He probably has some great stories to tell.
JiangxiDad on May 27, 2008 at 5:42 PM
Obama: If only that **** Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet I could get away with these things!
Auschwitz was liberated by my American uncle, or maybe by the Russians. Whatever.
We’ll get translators into Afghanistan to speak Arabic. Or maybe Pashto. Whatever.
We’ll re-deploy the troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, or maybe Pakistan. Whatever.
I can’t disown Wright any more than my grandmother, whose brother liberated Auschwitz, or Ohrdruf. Whatever. I disown him now because I never heard him say that before. Whatever.
Whatever you say, I have judgment to lead!
Better duck that sniper fire!
Steve Z on May 27, 2008 at 5:42 PM
Only in Obama World can you mention death camps and Nazis, and then turn around and paint the US as the bad guys for not providing enough support for veterans.
rw on May 27, 2008 at 5:42 PM
Ed how about get his Family “Heritage” correct, much less what he did in WWII. Why do I have this feeling B.H.O. has never spoken to anyone in his family concerning this and it is all half truths. Something isn’t clicking correctly.
upinak on May 27, 2008 at 5:44 PM
I’m waiting for the one from B.O. where while he was lost looking for the cure for cancer in the far reaches of the Amazon basin, he fought off a tribe of headhunting pygmies while he was armed with just a rubber band and a pack of Juicy Fruit gum.
But he’s still looking for that cure for cancer.
pilamaye on May 27, 2008 at 5:47 PM
My Dad was with the 42nd Rainbow as well, in 542 artillery.
drjohn on May 27, 2008 at 5:47 PM
Hard to believe. Doesn’t his great-uncle get invited to family get-togethers and holiday dinners with the Obamas in Chicago? They must have discussed this numerous times, and they must have a close relationship if Barak used him in a campaign speech.
JiangxiDad on May 27, 2008 at 5:49 PM
Ima echo what has already been said, quite correctly, coz its important to make this point over and over and over lest it fall down the public awareness rathole:
The issue here is not the gaffes per se, it is the press’ lack of reaction to them.
WhatIfARepublicanHadSaidIt?????
Every gaffe from Obama so far this year, if uttered by Bush or McCain or Romney or any other Republican anywhere, would be gleefully reported again and again and again by the MSM as proof of what an incurably laughable dumbass(insert GOP candidate here) was.
The lefty blogs would be en fuego with vitriol and condemnation, which would in turn launch a thousand cable segments which would in turn launch a thousand more major national daily op-eds, which in turn would launch a thousand more segments on Colbert/Stewart, etc etc etc.
Where am I wrong on this?? I ask again: WIARHSI???????
Mike D. on May 27, 2008 at 5:51 PM
Imagine William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn, and the Rev. Wright,Tony Rezco, and Barry and Michelle, and Great Uncle having Thanksgiving together. It’s nice.
JiangxiDad on May 27, 2008 at 5:51 PM
Chris Matthews is poo pooing it right now. How silly the RNC is….
tommylotto on May 27, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Is the great-Uncle a racist too?
drjohn on May 27, 2008 at 5:55 PM
That’s one election I could excited about. Dale Jarrett? Anybdoy?
fourstringfuror on May 27, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Throw in John Kerry as Lerch and Cousin It.
JammieWearingFool on May 27, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Er… I mean… a “typical white person”?
drjohn on May 27, 2008 at 5:56 PM
What, his typical bitter white great uncle? Racist??
Most definitely.
wise_man on May 27, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Great points T-Gal! With Obama’s exit (surrender) strategy he’s plannin’ for Iraq we may all witness another tragic genocide. Wonder how is Great-Uncle would feel about that? Attic remodels would be the newest boone of the housing industry.
Rovin on May 27, 2008 at 5:56 PM
The really real sad part is that he doesn’t care what we did in WWII, he just wants you to know that all the veterans are victims incapable of continuing to function in society without government assistance. That was the whole point of the story – not the courageous liberation of a piece of hell, but the six months the relative spent gibbering in the attic for lack of government psychologists to ask how it made him feel.
Quisp on May 27, 2008 at 5:59 PM
That would be the Fourth Armoured Division.
Blake on May 27, 2008 at 5:59 PM
A book about this relative would have been a hell of a lot more interesting than the one about his marxist father who abandoned him.
Blake on May 27, 2008 at 6:00 PM
To err is human.
Not the Messiah after all.
fogw on May 27, 2008 at 6:03 PM
All Jews look alike to Obama.
SouthernGent on May 27, 2008 at 6:03 PM
If Obama’s knowledge of Europe was a little deeper, even if he forgot the details, it might occur to him that a place name that ends in “witz” is probably East of Germany, and a place name that ends in “wald” is more likely a place in Germany, where Americans arrived first.
RBMN on May 27, 2008 at 6:04 PM
From the Book of the Obamasssiah:
VI. Thou shalt not question the past of the Obamassiah family arrival or his birth. To do so exposes thine as a racist. For events in time matter not if they occur differently than his holiness speaks of them. It matters only that you believe.
VI:1 – Geographical as well as temporal locations make little difference to his Holiness. They are not to be questioned.
rihar on May 27, 2008 at 6:05 PM
It’s not that it was or wasn’t a gaffe. It’s that he has no historical knowledge, and therefore no historical context upon which to evalauate…well anything important.
I am pretty sure that he may have heard that appeasement is a bad thing…or at least that, when the term is used, it is not meant as a compliment. I have no sense that, however,really, deep down in his gut, he understands and appreciates what it means and why Neville Chamberlain is held in such contempt by baby-boomers.
I doubt that he really has basic knowledge of the way WWII evolved. I am sure he knows, roughly, who was in it (but I bet if you ask him which side was Turkey on, or Romania, he would have trouble answering). I have no confidence, however, that he knows much about the the Potsdam or Yalta Conferences and how they impacted everyone life after the war.
It is this lack of depth that concerns me, and should concern everyone, about Obama. In the immortal words of Meathead, “Deep down he’s shallow”.
Blaise on May 27, 2008 at 6:10 PM
Yes,
poseur
franksalterego on May 27, 2008 at 6:15 PM
Kerry: Poseur V 1.0
Obama: Poseur V 1.1 Beta
franksalterego on May 27, 2008 at 6:22 PM
You say potatoe, I say Auschwitz.
Obama’s got a lifetime Doofus Pass from the MSM that crucified Quayle for one mis-spelling.
Typical white people to be running around liberating prisoners.
They should have just talked to Hitler instead.
Right Barry?
profitsbeard on May 27, 2008 at 6:26 PM
All he need to know know was that Auschwitz was in Poland and to quickly remember that Poland was part of the Warsaw Pact. Those two facts alone would tell him who liberated Auschwitz. He wouldn’t even need to recall the geography.
But, he did forget that the USSR, the UK and the USA were allies back then, assuming that he ever knew that.
baldilocks on May 27, 2008 at 6:32 PM
All he need to know knowAll he needed to knowbaldilocks on May 27, 2008 at 6:33 PM
Exactly – we’re forgetting how many men, including great-uncle – not only lost life and limbs, but sacrificed their mental health and preconceptions of human nature after witnessing the depravity that was Germany, and the aftermath that was Japan.
I know that my father, who served in the Greek navy in their intelligence and codebreaking unit, had a nervous breakdown after the war to the point where he could not lift a fork to his mouth to feed himself, such were the nasty and evil and horrible things he saw and heard and experienced.
I wonder if Obama realizes the sacrifice, the determination to get through it locked in an attic somewhere, that his uncle made so he could run for the highest office in the land and discount his own grandmother.
Mommynator on May 27, 2008 at 6:34 PM
For anyone who may be interested, I did a little write up about Ohrdruf Nord a couple years ago (see page 8 – some photos and attachments were editied out, but the 89th webpage and University of Texas have good info on it including original correspondence concerning the camp between all the big guys like Marshall, Eisenhower and Churchill).
Anyway, Frank Gilroy wrote a play called Contact with the Enemy about his experience Ohrdruf Nord as a member of the 89th infantry division.
forest on May 27, 2008 at 6:36 PM
Good points. Mitt was basically booted from the running for saying he marched along side Martin Luther King, or his dad did, or he was there in spirit or something, whatever.
Mitt’s gaffe was the headline for at least a day. I doubt St. Obama’s gaffe will make it to the nightly news despite the major lack of historical knowledge it so blatantly highlights.
NTWR on May 27, 2008 at 6:36 PM
On a related note (MSM, are you paying attention?) how does Obama expect to broker honest diplomacy with Iran, a regime so disconnected with history, so hateful of anything Jewish, that it denies the Holocaust, the Holocaust which his blood relative witnessed first hand?
SPCOlympics on May 27, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Didn’t Obama had an uncle that was the minister of a black church that Clinton watched burn down.
One of Obama’s uncles was dragged out of home and hung on his front yard.
One of Obama’s uncles gave up his seat to Rosa Parks.
One of Obama’s uncles was in the national guard that Eisenhower sent to Selma to protect the school kids.
And
All of Obama’s uncles marched with MLK.
right2bright on May 27, 2008 at 6:57 PM
CNN and Fox both ran a story on it this past hour, though CNN’s ended with “the story was true…”
BadgerHawk on May 27, 2008 at 6:58 PM
Does B.H.nObama have an uncle named Tom ??
redrock on May 27, 2008 at 6:58 PM
The mistake Obama makes is —- the internet knows all…
right2bright on May 27, 2008 at 6:58 PM
The point seems to me that he has no real world experiences of his own to draw from. He lives through the experiences of others and tries to make them his own.
Why, because he lacks real experience on any issue.
Zaire67 on May 27, 2008 at 7:02 PM
Why, because he lacks real experience on any issue.
Zaire67
What do you mean, he lacks experience on any issues? But he’s a community organizer…. what ever the hell that is.
thekingtut on May 27, 2008 at 7:09 PM
Yes,
This is known as the Forest Gump Syndrome.
‘Cept, instead of himself, it’s an uncle.
franksalterego on May 27, 2008 at 7:11 PM
Perfect.
baldilocks on May 27, 2008 at 7:43 PM
Why the F can’t anyone be honest, if Obama was a cracker we’d all be laughin’ at what a fool, tool, P.O.S. mule (i.e. donkey…get it?) this candidate truly is! I do not suffer from manufactured white man’s guilt/original sin/etc. Obama is a racist moron, plain and simple, he makes Hillary look like Gandhi. The democrats are so pathetic they’ll double down on identity politics because that’s all they got! All Hail this miserable P.O.S!!!! If Obama wins; consider me just a tool in the box of REQUIRED change – sir, yes sir…(no questions asked)!
dmann on May 27, 2008 at 7:58 PM
Yep.
Roll over laughing. He’s just one more typical white relative he has thrown under the bus by making private information public (assuming these stories are even true, or just convenient anecdotes). How can we trust you to enforce the HIPPA act, Barry?
To be precise, Mitt used perfectly acceptable figurative language to say “I saw my father march with Martin Luther King”.
Buy Danish on May 27, 2008 at 8:30 PM
Mrs B and I were out having some BBQ and they had CNN on in the corner. It was a non-stop appology-fest for Obambi.
CNN, like many others, serves effectively as the house organ for the DNC.
techno_barbarian on May 27, 2008 at 10:06 PM
“Ohrdruf, Treblinka, Auschwitz, whatever. Stop bothering me with details. Can’t you see I’m a super-genius.”
Tantor on May 28, 2008 at 12:42 AM
Heh
Obama could use a few months in the attic to get his stories straight
entagor on May 28, 2008 at 3:55 AM
Grandfather or great uncle – it doesn’t matter. Anyone running for President of the United States of America should have a cursory enough knowledge of history to know that American troops did not go into Auschwitz. You would think that at some point in his life he would have researched this, especially if one of his esteemed relatives was involved.
Obama is scary. He is not the person he wants everyone to believe he is.
Logic on May 28, 2008 at 7:22 AM
Rush said Obama may be educated but he’s stupid. He also said Obama probably does not know what Memorial Day is for. I gotta go with Rush on this one.
abcurtis on May 28, 2008 at 9:26 AM
Comment pages: