AMERICAblog reader Kim, from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, weighs in on our story about the Republicans mocking Obama for saying his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz when he really helped liberate Buchenwald:
Want to know how idiotic this is? The difference between Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau and Bergen-Belsen comes down to the fact that Auschwitz was specifically labeled an extermination camp, whereas the latter three are "merely" concentration camps where people were worked to death. One of the biggest myths surrounding the Holocaust is that every concentration camp was an extermination camp with crematoria. In fact, most were work camps where people were either worked to death, starved to death, shot, or murdered in ways so unthinkable that I cannot even imagine.
Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen, and 7 of my family members died at Dachau. I personally don't give a damn that Obama confused Buchenwald and Auschwitz, I'm personally glad that Obama's uncle, and his American/European/and yes, Soviet allies got there and put an end to it before the Nazi's (and their "appeasers") were able to kill, by cyanide or bullet to the head, one more innocent person.
Turning this into a political football is reprehensible, and as the daughter and granddaughter of Jews who currently reside in Florida, I can tell you that this jockeying is sickening to watch. And from the limited sample I have, it isn't doing the RNC any favors (I don't know if its hurting them, but it sure as hell isn't helping).
Kim
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Main & gay blog