Obama Misrecollects Auschwitz Liberation

3 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Contributor

Giving a speech in New Mexico on Memorial Day, Barack Obama said the following:

Well, it turns out that the concentration camp in question wasn't Auschwitz, it was Buchenwald. And the man in question was a great uncle of Obama's, and not the sibling of one of his parents.

Opponents of Obama's have pounced on the gaffe, and his campaign later released the following statement:

"Senator 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."

To his detractors "Uncle-gate" (let's fact it, that has a better ring to it than "Auschwitz-Gate") will serve as indicator of all that is wrong with his candidacy. To his supporters, it's a good reminder that he isn't the messiah, and will make mistakes along the way.

Filed Under: Democrats, Barack Obama

Tagged: Auschwitz, Barack Obama, BarackObama, Buchenwald, Democrats, election, gaffes, president 2008, President2008, Uncle-gate

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.