AMERICAblog: Holocaust Museum confirms, Obama's uncle's Infantry Division liberated Buchenwald
OneManComotion
· 1 year ago
This is very good news indeed.
buckguy
· 1 year ago
Auschwitz and Buchenwald are/were within walking distance of each other. I've been to both. Buchenwald has been left largely untouched, except for a small memorial, on purpose. Auschwitz, which gets most of the tourists is more of a conventional museum, which exhibits arranged by nationality in some of the old barracks.
Administratively, they were the same operation at one point--probably toward the end of the war. Hopefully, the wingnuts will inadvertently give Obama a chance to mention his uncle's role in liberating the camps many more times.
John Aravosis
· 1 year ago
if it were me, I'd do every interview with every reporter who wants to talk about the story. This is a great story for Obama.
blackwolf
· 1 year ago
Excellent point John. The more they talk about it, the more his family gets positive coverage on it.
okojo
· 1 year ago
I believe you are thinking of Birkenau and Auschwitz... Buchenwald is outside of Weimar in Thuringia which is a bit than walking distance to Auschwitz in Poland. The Crematoriums have been blown up at Birkenau when the Germans retreated, however the plans and designs remain of the crematoriums.
buckguy
· 1 year ago
You're right
Rufus
· 1 year ago
Republicans have no redeeming social value.
Indigo
· 1 year ago
I bet Hillary's got a relative who fought in a war.
John Aravosis
· 1 year ago
And if she does, she should be proud of them. And no one should attack her for it.
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
Well, her dad hung around Lake Michigan during WW II.
Rodham enlisted in the United States Navy, where he became a Chief Petty Officer stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station, performing training duties for sailors headed for the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II.[2]
How do you get stationed a few miles from your own hometown?
John Aravosis
· 1 year ago
Be nice.
okojo
· 1 year ago
My Grandfather wanted to join the Marines, but because he was an electrical engineer at Westinghouse, the draft board told him that he was more essential putting up lighting at airports, while I did have a great uncle who fought at Iwo Jima in the Marines, and from I heard of his stories, he would trade his position for all its guts and glory in a New York minute for a dull boring job back in the states..
Anyway Hillary's dad isn't running, (didn't he pass away a couple years ago?) He should be proud he served, and he did the job he was told to.
I also had an uncle who died in a typhoon that Admiral Halsey put his fleet in the middle of, in late 1944.
Sage24
· 1 year ago
Obama must be so proud. Making a little mistake about the name of the camp is one thing, the most important thing is, the story is true. His relative was involved in liberating those poor prisoners.
Now about ducking for cover against sniper fire in Bosnia, when it did not even happen; that's an outright LIE.
okojo
· 1 year ago
There is a difference between Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Auschwitz which was a huge complex that included the killing center of Birkenau was made to kill as many jews as possible. Treblinka didn't have any industrial base, so there few slave labors outside of the kapos, but its main purpose to murder jews on a mass scale. Obama should make sure he has all his facts right. Buchenwald was a concentration camp/aka prison camp. When the Soviets were beating the Germans, the Germans took any slave labourers to camps like Dachau, Buchenwald, Bergen Belsen etc to continue the German war effort. They weren't in the same scope as Auschwitz, Treblinka or Soribor.
John Aravosis
· 1 year ago
See, I see your point, but I think most Americans are like me. We don't know the difference between Auschwitz and Treblinka and Buchenwald. We probably should, but we probably should know a lot of things that we don't. That having been said, it kind of takes the sting out of the "scandal" that his uncle did in fact help liberate one of the most famous camps.
okojo
· 1 year ago
I think he should used the story to show that he is proud of his American background, he should be very careful about getting his specifics right, even today on a very sensitive subject..
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
Agree.
Auschwitz was an extermination camp, Buchenwald was a concentration camp.
Didn't learn that until a couple minutes ago.
jr
· 1 year ago
the rapturebunnyssphere is against the new GI Bill so it's not surprising they're attacking Obama over this
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
Let 'em push this line. You know why?
It's going to hurt their "Obama isn't a real American" meme, the same way that their Rev. Wright B.S. hurt their "Obama is a Muslim" meme.
So, keep going Hillbots and Repubs. Tell everybody that Obama's uncle was a US soldier who helped liberate Buchenwald instead of Auschwitz.
John Aravosis
· 1 year ago
Actually, that's a good point too. He had family fighting for us in WWII.
blackwolf
· 1 year ago
Well done Bush_Bites: Excellent call:)
DougStamate
· 1 year ago
Auschwitz (Oswiezc, I believe in Polish) was in Poland, Buchenwald in Germany and Bergan-Belsen in the Netherlands (the last was where Anne Frank died). The only point, if there is one to be made, is that Sen. Obama is among the billions of people on this planet who don't have perfect memories.
okojo
· 1 year ago
Bergen Belsen was in Germany (lower Saxony), there was coordination camps, basically railway depots to take Jews east in the Netherland at Westerbork and another one at Foort (Amersfoort)
Bergen Belsen was in the region of British Operations in Germany (Ie Northern Germany) so they were the ones who liberated it.
DougStamate
· 1 year ago
Thank you, apparently I was conflating either Westerbork or Foort with Bergen-Belsen.
buckguy
· 1 year ago
I screwed-up I was thinking of Birkenau. regardless, hope Obama can turn this around in his favor.
mirth
· 1 year ago
There is nothing to turn around. This a point of distinction for Obama. Do you mean that he confused one name for another? Oh, I pray that Obama's opposition runs with that!
Fine post, John.
jimfromthefoothills
· 1 year ago
It was a family story that was TRUE.
Basketball head Lou Dobbs and CAndy (GOP) fat cunt bitch Crowley, mocked him for "miss speaking".
It helps show the American story that is Barack Obama... my man!
Zorba
· 1 year ago
John- I didn't know you were Greek! You definitely should be proud of your uncle, just as Obama should be proud of his uncle. Ελευθερία!
ZennButtKicker (tlhwraith)
· 1 year ago
Zorba, with a last name like Aravosis, Greek would be pretty near the top of my list if I had to guess Johns nationality.
Zorba
· 1 year ago
Yes, you're right- I just wasn't thinking!
John Aravosis
· 1 year ago
LOL that's funny :-)
Jim Olson
· 1 year ago
Αραϖοσισ? You honestly missed that?
ZennButtKicker (tlhwraith)
· 1 year ago
Really? This is the best the GOP has got? This isn't worth the Charmin extra fluffy I wipe my but with! Oh well, let them make hay, it's kind of like the Wright thing (which eliminated any reasonable doubt about Obama being a Muslim). Now, can we move away from the Obama isn't "American" enough?
While the economy is sucking, we are in wars we can't maintain, and darn near on the verge of becoming a "2nd world" nation one of our major poliical parties thinks this is worth even mentioning in the discourse of choosing a POTUS? Truly, truly, sad.
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
Well, I learned a lot about the camps on this thread, for sure, even though I've read quite a bit on the Holocaust. It doesn't matter which were which, IMHO, because they were all built to eliminate a race of people, no matter what the method.
There are many, many things I never knew about my own great-uncles and aunts, many of whom I saw only occasionally since most lived elsewhere than my grandmother. You can't fault a great-nephew for not knowing the exact facts of something that happened 65 years ago...every family forgets part of its own history from time to time, and unless there is someone around who does remember, facts get lost or mixed up.
Andrew A. Gill
· 1 year ago
they were all built to eliminate a race of people, no matter what the method.
Buchenwald (as others have said) was not a death camp. Death camps were located out of Germany proper because they couldn't risk executing people on their own soil.
Buchenwald was just an ordinary concentration camp for ordinary war crimes.
Late edit: What Kim from Florida said.
Andrew A. Gill
· 1 year ago
I've been to Auschwitz, and to Auschwitz II Birkenau, but not to Buchenwald. Auschwitz is actually a really beautiful place which was originally a barracks for Polish soldiers and from the outside looks like a bunch or row houses. Yet executions happened there as well as in Birkenau.
Auschwitz II Birkenau was designed from the ground up as a death camp, and it looks the part. Jews were moved to Birkenau while most of the political prisoners remained in Auschwitz I. Both are truly horrifying to behold.
They are located in Oświęcim, Poland. (pronounced a little like oshvienshim)
Even if his great uncle didn't liberate Auschwitz, Obama should be truly proud that he did liberate one of them, and I expect that it would have been the sort of thing that would send you to an attic for 6 months.
mr_ed
· 1 year ago
The point is that his research was off. That alone can be used against him, especially as an attorney. He's under a 600x microscope. Every blemish is magnified.
I'll add my father's story to this thread, why not? He died when I was 6 years old so these are stories told to me by my mother and older brothers. My father was delayed in going overseas because he had two different sized feet, seriously, he had to have special order boots. He married my mother while he was waiting to go overseas. My mother worked in the office of the Commander of the Navy, it was a top secret job, she couldn't tell anyone where she worked and was frisked when she entered and left the Pentagon. Once my dad made it overseas, the war had just ended and he helped to liberate the concentration camps and I don't know which ones. Apparently he brought back pictures from the camps, which my mother destroyed so us kids wouldn't stumble across them. My dad also brought home a German Lugar, which one of my brothers lost. Thanks for listening.
vwcat
· 1 year ago
It's easy to mix up the names of the camps. What is not forgivable is the gop trying to use WWII as a reason to go to war and to use it to prop up their own macho fantasies. People who participated during that war do not find it romantic or fun. It was a horrible and terrifying time. My family left home when the Nazi's came into France and like so many other families migrated south. They were followed and shot at by german planes while on the road. My mom was 9. To this day, my mother hears the planes droning sometimes from that time in her life. It is normal for those who lived then to have the same experience. Let me go after the gop on WWII and take them on with this. I wish I had a way to go at them on this end. They are soft little boys who play WWII in their heads and have no clue.
PeteWa
· 1 year ago
God the Republicans are scumbags. We're talking about a party populated by people like David Duke, a party led by the grandson of a major Nazi financier, a party that was the welcome home of Strom Thurmand, and oh yeah, Mary Kay LeTourneau's dad (look it up, especially the Nazi tie in from the family) and endless other freaks, and they have the fucking nerve to pretend to care about the Holocaust. Of course it is pretend with them, the GOP inhuman ghouls jump at any chance to attack their opponent, no matter the context, no matter truth, decency or the American way. The RNC bastards should be exported from our shores.
arktikwolf
· 1 year ago
"Older and Wiser" writes of Jews as "a race." This is untrue. Jews are a (world) culture. There are Black, Asian, Caucasian and of course, Semitic Jews.
h0ss
· 1 year ago
The "gaffe" might have been on purpose.
Absent this pathetic attempt by the RNC, the comment about his uncle gets buried.
With this... now, the news of his Uncle's service are at the forefront of the news cycle.
I don't know if he's so forward-thinking as to make this kind of mistake on purpose, but you never know. The most successful people make their own luck, so to speak.
SociologistTina
· 1 year ago
I'm just learning what happened now. Again, thank you so much for writing this and posting it.
urthsong
· 1 year ago
Most families have their oral histories with the telling of little errors in the telling or hearing from time to time. What bothers me here is that Obama was making this reference about the emotional trauma his great uncle suffered to explain why he is supporting the legislation to provide adequate funding for our returning veterans to get the help they need to recover and live their lives. McCain is opposed to providing the level of support our vets need.
Carol
· 10 months ago
I don't think you would mix up a name, sounds phoney. That would be the most highly respected guy in all the family and the name of the camp would be prominent.
Busboy
· 1 year ago
I'm glad to see A-bloggers recognize that there were extermination camps. For awhile it sounded as if Ahmadinejad was correct; and these things never happened.
Busboy
· 1 year ago
Obama's "fact checkers" need to review his speeches. He lost a whole day out of the political season by naming the wrong concentration camp. The MSM is checking every word he utters.... just sayin....
blackwolf
· 1 year ago
True, but who knows, maybe his fact checkers did get it right. Obama has stated that "they" all have had a long time on the campaign trail, and that mistakes are going to be made. People are aware of this.
All Comments
Administratively, they were the same operation at one point--probably toward the end of the war. Hopefully, the wingnuts will inadvertently give Obama a chance to mention his uncle's role in liberating the camps many more times.
Rodham enlisted in the United States Navy, where he became a Chief Petty Officer stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station, performing training duties for sailors headed for the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II.[2]
How do you get stationed a few miles from your own hometown?
Anyway Hillary's dad isn't running, (didn't he pass away a couple years ago?) He should be proud he served, and he did the job he was told to.
I also had an uncle who died in a typhoon that Admiral Halsey put his fleet in the middle of, in late 1944.
Now about ducking for cover against sniper fire in Bosnia, when it did not even happen; that's an outright LIE.
Auschwitz was an extermination camp, Buchenwald was a concentration camp.
Didn't learn that until a couple minutes ago.
It's going to hurt their "Obama isn't a real American" meme, the same way that their Rev. Wright B.S. hurt their "Obama is a Muslim" meme.
So, keep going Hillbots and Repubs. Tell everybody that Obama's uncle was a US soldier who helped liberate Buchenwald instead of Auschwitz.
The only point, if there is one to be made, is that Sen. Obama is among the billions of people on this planet who don't have perfect memories.
Bergen Belsen was in the region of British Operations in Germany (Ie Northern Germany) so they were the ones who liberated it.
Do you mean that he confused one name for another?
Oh, I pray that Obama's opposition runs with that!
Fine post, John.
Basketball head Lou Dobbs and CAndy (GOP) fat cunt bitch Crowley, mocked him for "miss speaking".
It helps show the American story that is Barack Obama... my man!
While the economy is sucking, we are in wars we can't maintain, and darn near on the verge of becoming a "2nd world" nation one of our major poliical parties thinks this is worth even mentioning in the discourse of choosing a POTUS? Truly, truly, sad.
There are many, many things I never knew about my own great-uncles and aunts, many of whom I saw only occasionally since most lived elsewhere than my grandmother. You can't fault a great-nephew for not knowing the exact facts of something that happened 65 years ago...every family forgets part of its own history from time to time, and unless there is someone around who does remember, facts get lost or mixed up.
Buchenwald (as others have said) was not a death camp. Death camps were located out of Germany proper because they couldn't risk executing people on their own soil.
Buchenwald was just an ordinary concentration camp for ordinary war crimes.
Late edit: What Kim from Florida said.
Auschwitz II Birkenau was designed from the ground up as a death camp, and it looks the part. Jews were moved to Birkenau while most of the political prisoners remained in Auschwitz I. Both are truly horrifying to behold.
They are located in Oświęcim, Poland. (pronounced a little like oshvienshim)
Even if his great uncle didn't liberate Auschwitz, Obama should be truly proud that he did liberate one of them, and I expect that it would have been the sort of thing that would send you to an attic for 6 months.
Mengele commanded the execution of 40000 prisoners. the industrialized genocide took place in AUSSCHWITZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald_concent...
Buchenwald:
"to each his own" a more political camp: industrialized retaliation
McCain will campaign with Bush
People who participated during that war do not find it romantic or fun. It was a horrible and terrifying time.
My family left home when the Nazi's came into France and like so many other families migrated south. They were followed and shot at by german planes while on the road. My mom was 9.
To this day, my mother hears the planes droning sometimes from that time in her life.
It is normal for those who lived then to have the same experience.
Let me go after the gop on WWII and take them on with this. I wish I had a way to go at them on this end. They are soft little boys who play WWII in their heads and have no clue.
Of course it is pretend with them, the GOP inhuman ghouls jump at any chance to attack their opponent, no matter the context, no matter truth, decency or the American way.
The RNC bastards should be exported from our shores.
Absent this pathetic attempt by the RNC, the comment about his uncle gets buried.
With this... now, the news of his Uncle's service are at the forefront of the news cycle.
I don't know if he's so forward-thinking as to make this kind of mistake on purpose, but you never know. The most successful people make their own luck, so to speak.