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Barack Obama Was Wrong When he Claimed That His Uncle Helped Liberate
Auschwitz-Truth!
Summary of the eRumor: The forwarded email quotes
senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama as saying that his uncle
was a part of the Army troops that liberated the Auschwitz death camp in
Poland. The writer of the eRumor said that's a lie, that the
Russians liberated Auschwitz, not the Americans.
The Truth: The senator got this one
wrong.
At a campaign appearance in New Mexico in May, 2008, Obama made the
statement quoted in the eRumor. He proudly talked of an uncle who
helped liberate Auschwitz. The problem is that Auschwitz was
liberated on January 27, 1945 by Stalin's Red Army. No American
troops were involved.
The Obama campaign quickly explained that Obama wasn't lying and the story was true, but that it
was Obama's great-uncle he was talking about and he was involved with American troops in
liberating the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Later a
spokesperson further corrected that the great-uncle served in the 89th
Infantry Division that liberated the Ohrdruf concentration camp, which was
a subcamp of Buchenwald.
CLICK HERE for a list of other related
stories about Barack Obama
Updated 6/21/08
A real example of the eRumor as it has
appeared on the Internet:
Obama lied about his uncle's service in World War II:
From a news report:
"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
returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic. “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,” Obama said. “That’s why this idea of making sure that
every single veteran, when they are discharged, are screened for
post-traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that
they need – that’s why it’s so important.”
Well---his uncle must have been a Russian, because it was the Russians who
liberated Auschwitz and then occupied Poland, not the Americans.