By FOXNews.com
Published: 05-27-08
Barack Obama is getting called out again for his knowledge of history including his own family’s after declaring to veterans on Memorial Day that his uncle helped liberate the Auschwitz death camp at the end of World War II.
Two problems with the tale: Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army and Obama’s American mother was an only child.
Speaking in Las Cruces N.M. on Monday the Democratic presidential candidate said he did not serve but comes from a family that did sacrifice for the nation. He was speaking about the many members of the military who suffer post traumatic stress disorder and should be given better care.
“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.
However a quick 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 7000 remaining prisoners” the site reads.
U.S. forces did liberate several camps including Ohrdruf Concentration Camp on April 4 1945; Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp on April 11 1945; Buchenwald on April 12 1945; Dachau on April 29 1945; and Mauthausen on May 5 1945.
The Obama campaign later claimed that the Illinois senator was referring to his great uncle and that he had in fact confused Auschwitz with the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp. According to the campaign his great uncle served in the 89th Infantry Division and the unit was among those to liberate Ohrdruf on April 4 1945.
Ohrdruf was according to the Holocaust Museum not an extermination camp but a work camp where prisoners were worked to death.
Obama was raised in part by his grandparents and his father served in the second World War.
Meanwhile the Republican National Committee seized on the comments.
“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” said RNC Press Secretary Alex Conant.
