The Uncle Seems Real

OK, Occam’s Razor would indicate that Barack Obama has a maternal great uncle (i.e., his mother’s mother’s brother), named Charles Payne (middle initial unclear) who served with the 355th Infantry that liberated one of the camps in the Buchenwald complex, despite previous concerns on that score.

It seems very unlikely that he would have a great uncle by that name, and that someone by that name would have had that service record, who also was an Obama political supporter, and he would put forth such a story, and that they are not the same person, despite the confusion about the middle initial. So, if we ignore the “Auschwitz” reference, and the fact that he calls his great uncle his uncle (understandable, given that he had no actual uncles, at least on his mother’s side), the story is accurate.

But it’s not that easy to ignore Auschwitz.

That’s because “Auschwitz” has become one of the most emotionally charged words in the English (well, OK, it’s not English–it’s German) language. It’s one of the most emotionally charged words in any language, for anyone who is aware of what happened there, and few educated people aren’t, regardless of their native language.

The word is significant in the context of the Obama campaign for two reasons.

First, because it has such emotional connotations, particularly for Jews, with whom Obama has had trouble closing the deal, it looks like he’s pandering to them. I’m not saying that he is, but it has that appearance.

Auschwitz was the site of the deliberate extermination of many of them (as well as Catholics, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others deemed “unworthy of life” by the National Socialists aka Nazis) and one might cynically think that an attempt to say that one of his family members was responsible for the liberation of the camp would give that constituency a warmer feeling for him, despite his many foreign policy advisors who clearly are not fans of the state of Israel (e.g., Zbig).

Buchenwald, on the other hand, while atrocious beyond normal human understanding, was merely a slave labor camp, and not historically abnormal in a time of war. The people who died there did so under the stress of work and disease, rather than as a deliberate attempt to wipe them off the planet. Which, of course, says much more about human nature and history than it does about the Nazis.

But beyond that, it is of concern because it reveals a profound ignorance of history and/or geography.

Anyone familiar with the history of World War II knows that Auschwitz (despite its Germanic name, which like Dansk to Danzig after the conquest in 1939, was a rename–the Polish name is Oswiecim), was in the occupied country of Poland, which before the war had hundreds of thousands of Jews, and after the war had…virtually none.

Furthermore, anyone familiar with that history knows that American troops never advanced past the River Elbe, in Germany, and that the Soviet forces advanced all the way across Poland and into eastern Germany, raping and pillaging as they went. Which is why there was an East Germany. Has Barack never heard of that “country,” which was a colony of the Soviet Union, of which his mother was not obviously unfond (to understate the issue)?

No one, in other words, familiar with that history, would imagine that an American soldier, under Patton, had contributed to the “liberation” (scare quotes because the Soviets never liberated anyone–they only enslaved them) of Auschwitz.

Obama didn’t know this. Nor, apparently, did anyone on his staff, since he had been spouting the same fable since 2002 and no one had bothered to correct him. Or if they had, they were ignored. I’m not sure which is worse.

Given his unfamiliarity with Jack Kennedy’s less-than-successful negotiations with Khrushchev, it makes one wonder what else he doesn’t know.

[Late evening update]

Some have taken issue of my characterization of Buchenwald as “merely a slave labor camp.”

This has to be taken in context. I’m not sure what part of “atrocious beyond human understanding” with regard to that camp the commenters don’t understand.

I wasn’t excusing it in any way. I was simply pointing out that in the historical context of war, in which civilians were generally enslaved or killed, and disposed of when they could no longer work, it was hardly abnormal. Auschwitz (and Treblinka, and Sobibor, and Chelmo, and Betzec, and Majdenek) were in a separate class, previously unknown, which gave rise to the term “genocide,” in which the intent was to wipe out an entire people. I’m sorry that some don’t get the point.

[Thursday morning update]

Well, I certainly seem to have stirred up a hornet’s nest among some. Let me pick up the remains of the straw men that were strewn around and kicked apart here overnight.

For the record, I did not say, or imply, that Buchenwald was a summer camp. I did not say, or imply, that the leftist Hitler’s crimes were a “drop in the bucket” compared to the leftist Stalin’s. I did not say, or imply, that working people to death is not murdering them. I did not say, or imply, that anyone’s death (including Anne Frank’s) was less tragic because it occurred at Bergen-Belsen than at Auschitz. I did not say, or imply, that I would “smile with satisfaction” if I were at Buchenwald instead of Auschwitz.

I’m not sure how to have a rational discussion with anyone nutty enough to have managed to infer any of the above from what I actually wrote.

Also, for the record, I am not now, and have never been a Republican, or (AFAIK) a “right winger,” unless by that phrase one means a classical liberal. As for “sitting down with my Jewish friends and discussing this,” I not only have Jewish friends, but Jewish relatives by blood, or perhaps I should say had, because they include many who doubtless died in both types of camps.

[Update a few minutes later]

One other straw man. I did not say, or imply, that because of this single incident Barack Obama was unfit to be president of the United States. But it is part, albeit a small one, of a much larger tapestry.

[One more update]

To the people in comments asking me what I meant by this, or why I wrote it, I don’t know how to better explain my points than I already have. If after having actually read it carefully, for comprehension, you still don’t get it, or willfully choose to misinterpret it, I can’t help you.

[Update again]

OK, I’ll make one attempt, for those who think that I am somehow “minimizing” what happened at Buchenwald. Perhaps they don’t understand the true meaning of the word “atrocious,” as in the phrase I used, “atrocious beyond human understanding.”

I wasn’t using it in perhaps a more popular (and trivial) sense as “that movie or meal was atrocious.” I was using it in its most literal sense, as in a place where actual atrocities occurred. The two words are related, you know?

[Update about 9:30]

If I change the phrase “merely a slave labor camp,” which is what seems to be generating such irrational fury and umbrage, to “not a site for the extermination of a people on an industrial scale,” will that mollify people? Probably not, but I’ll do it anyway.

[Afternoon update]

I’m wondering how much of the rampant insanity, straw mannery and outrage in comments would have been avoided had I merely omitted the word “merely”.

[Friday morning update]

I have one final (I hope) follow up post on this subject.

212 thoughts on “The Uncle Seems Real”

  1. You say: “They were….leftists….. The left only revised history to call Hitler a right winger because of the anti-semitism and his betrayal of Stalin.”

    You guys are so contemptuous of Obama because he (according to you) doesn’t know where Auschwitz or Buchenwald are, yet you yourselves are so ignorant about World War II that you call Hitler a left winger.

    Hitler was a right winger. He regarded himself as such and said so constantly. His followers regarded themselves as right wingers. He allied with other right wing groups such as the Steel Helmets. He constantly attacked left wing groups such as the Social Democrats and Communists. He justified his party’s existence by the need to destroy Communism.

    You say: “No,(Mussolini) was a life-long socialist.”

    Mussolini basically invented Fascism as a new political movement distinct from others. The allegation above is farcical.

    In the words of Jack, “You can’t handle the truth.” You cannot face the fact that, for your own gain, you have sold your souls to a movement that has produced such monumental evil, so you invent ugly lies to deny the reality of what you are up to. May God have mercy on you.

  2. Siteowner,

    You do realize that you’re a huge asshole, right? I mean, people must tell you so all the time.

  3. I wrote this just in case that big steaming pile of dog excrement, Dennis Livingstone, came back to look for a follow up.

  4. You do realize that you’re a huge asshole, right? I mean, people must tell you so all the time.

    No, actually, you’re one of the very few. I suspect that means that it’s projection.

  5. Sen. John McCain has attacked Sen. Barack Obama for not traveling to Iraq to see the �facts on the ground.� But a recent statement by McCain about troop levels has his opponents raising questions about his own knowledge.

    In comments to reporters on Thursday, McCain asserted that �I can tell you that it is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you it�s succeeding. We have drawn down to pre-surge levels. Basra, Mosul and now Sadr City are quiet and it�s long and it�s hard and it�s tough and there will be setbacks.�

    In fact, as the Obama campaign was quick to point out, the troop level in Iraq is at about 155,000 right now, well above the 130,000 that would mark a return to pre-surge levels.

    But you know, somehow the Buchenwald vs. Auschwitz gaffe is just so much more important…

  6. ” in the historical context of war, in which civilians were generally enslaved or killed, and disposed of when they could no longer work, it was hardly abnormal”

    Strange wars you’re familiar with. Unless it is normal to generally enslave, kill and dispose of your own citizenry. The first victims were German citizens (apart from being disabled, socialist, gypsy, jew or whatever other attribute got them in the camp in the first place)

  7. Dennis, Glad you enjoyed them.

    JM, are you blind or obtuse? This happens everyday around the world. Myanmar, Sudan, wherever tyrants make their home. It’s not right but from a world at large perspective, it’s not abnormal.

  8. Ohhhh, so now we are down to: “That Jew killing is not as bad as the Jew killing at Auschwitz. Obama is a fabulist!”

    I agree with Mr. Livingstone. You are an asshole. Your assholery could easily be overlooked. But your stupidity, alas, cannot.

  9. I’m sorry that the epidemic didn’t get stamped out before it spread to all you macho guys over here.

    I hope you all go to shit and fall back in it.

  10. You know what? This post, along with some of the absolutely stupid, idiotic comments made supporting this garbage, have finally tipped the scales for me.

    Right-wings are officially too stupid to live, and I can no longer associate with them in any way, shape or form.

    When the decent right-wingers left out there finally manage to wrestle the political conversation away from these absolute, unequivocal morons, please let us sane, rational people know. We’d be happy to talk then, but not until.

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