Obama's great-uncle recalls liberating Nazi camp.

[Drunken Irishman]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/22/obamas_great_uncle_recalls_liberating_nazi_camp/">Obama's great-uncle recalls liberating Nazi camp

Charles T. Payne, 83, a great uncle to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is seen during an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday, July 22, 2008, in his apartment in Chicago. Helping to liberate Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, in April 1945 was Payne's first close brush with history. Payne put on an Obama pin and said of his history-making great nephew Tuesday, "He's truly an astounding young man and always has been." Payne is the the brother of Obama's maternal grandmother. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

CHICAGO—Charles T. Payne was 20 years old and, like any good Midwesterner, he knew how to listen.

He was making conversation, in pieced-together English and German, with a freed prisoner of Ohrdruf, the Nazi work camp Payne's infantry regiment had just liberated at the end of World War II.

"With great difficulty we conversed and, if I got what it was he was telling me about, it was that the Germans had killed a million Jews and that the world didn't really know this yet," Payne, 83, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday as, on the other side of the world, his great-nephew, Barack Obama, prepared to visit the Yad Vashem national Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

Helping liberate Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, in April 1945 was Payne's first close brush with history.

He is enjoying, for the most part, a second brush as the great-uncle of the Democratic presidential candidate.

...

Payne, with an Obama button pinned to his shirt, told the AP he was "truly astonished" by the attention paid to Obama's flub. The brother of Obama's maternal grandmother, Payne figures Obama heard the story wrong from his grandparents, "whose grasp of geography wasn't always the firmest." He said at the time he asked friends if he should "try to set the record straight," but that they advised him to ignore it.

Payne said he didn't want to say anything to embarrass the Obama campaign and minimized his role in the liberation of Ohrdruf.

"I have no heroic story to tell," he said. "I was just there."

...

Payne is proud of his great-nephew, who is prominently displayed in family photos.

"He's truly an astounding young man and always has been," he said.

As attention turns to the Holocaust with Obama's expected visit to the Israeli memorial on Wednesday, Payne reflected on the lessons of history.

"Clearly to me it's proof that there's no limit to what a man will do to man and what government out of control will do," he said. "I guess we need to be on our guard eternally."

[carpe diem]

1. i was just about to post this...

i'll have to settle for a recommend...:) :)

[democrattotheend]

2. Interesting. I did not know his uncle was still alive

Oops, I mean great uncle. Forgive me.

[babylonsister]

3. I hope this is true. Yea, I'm a cynic, but I agree with Mr. Payne. nt

[monomach]

4. BUT OBAMA SED IT WUZ HIS UNKEL NOT HIS GRATE UNKEL

WHY OBAMA LIE LIEK THAT?

I AM CONCERN!

K&R, though. ;)

[redstate_democrat]

9. lol!

:rofl:

You carazy!

[Ian_rd]

12. Gawd. Memories.

And which camp was it? Obama LEID ABOTU THAT TOOOOO!

[VolcanoJen]

14. But... But....

Michelle Malkin sez Baruck Osama haz bin caughted in liee and iz inn truble!111! Libruls DID NOT11!!!!! figth inn wwtwo!!111

[Cha]

5. Remember this when it came out

before?..oh, Obama got some detail wrong and the fascists swooped down like a bat from hell.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[usregimechange]

7. K&R!

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

8. K&R, nice story.

[beachmom]

10. Thanks for posting. I wrote a diary on Kos about it, too. Please rec!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/22/224439/948/870/555431

We need this story to get more visibility. Thanks.

[nsd]

11. K & R

Cool story.

[lynettebro440]

13. Thank you

Kicked and recommended