Obama refers to "Nazi Death Camps as "Polish Death Camps"

Raees wrote: Polish people were guards at these ( how can I say this PC ?? ) death camp prisons in Poland , some of them not-that-unwillingly I’ve read . I think the Poles just want to forget that inconvenient truth and are less insulted by the facts than they are embarrassed .

They have nothing to be embarrassed about, the majority of the Polish army, and government escaped and made it to london. There the Army became the Polish Free Army and fought along side their counter parts. There were some that made the choice to join with the Nazi regime, but it was not the majority.

Not only have I visited the death camps, but living in Germany as an Army Brat, I was on field trips to the likes of places like the building where the Nurmberg War crime trials were held, we visited a building that was the headquarters of the folks working to bring all the war criminals to trial for thier war crimes. There was actually a deadline on this, and that same year of the deadline, the German government passed a law doing away with the deadline.

navycpo7 wrote:

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: Does anyone around here get "off the mountain." The ignorance is thick.

Not if I do not have to.

but like you I have studied the holocaust. I have been to a few of the camps that have been preserved. I have been to both Dachau and Auschwitz. I am most likely not as informed as you, but I got a lot of first hand information from my German Grandfather before his passing. My mother spent the war in an orphanage in Tubingen, Germany during the war. Some of the things that she is finally talking about is something. My grandmother also talked to me about things that happened during the war.

Some other facts on the Polish people is that during the war, so many poles had been killed that there was not enough left to supply the Nazi forced slave labor force, so they started using french people to fill it.

Please understand I am not implying that I am more or less informed than others. But the nature of the literary piece I was working on dealt specifically with the anti-semitism of the pre-WWII Polish population, a particular Haskalah Jew (Haskalah was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies) and the basis of that anti-semitism as it pertained to the Jews of Warsaw (and conversely all of Poland).

"Polish Death camps" is as much as an insult (and a misnomer) as if someone called our pre-civil war Southern plantations "N***er Owned Farms." Perhaps President Obama would understand the import of his mistake if it was presented to him in that way? Maybe some of the liberals on 285 Bound who brush off this gaff as insignificant would understand it better if present to them in this way?

No... probably not.

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote:

navycpo7 wrote:

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: Does anyone around here get "off the mountain." The ignorance is thick.

Not if I do not have to.

but like you I have studied the holocaust. I have been to a few of the camps that have been preserved. I have been to both Dachau and Auschwitz. I am most likely not as informed as you, but I got a lot of first hand information from my German Grandfather before his passing. My mother spent the war in an orphanage in Tubingen, Germany during the war. Some of the things that she is finally talking about is something. My grandmother also talked to me about things that happened during the war.

Some other facts on the Polish people is that during the war, so many poles had been killed that there was not enough left to supply the Nazi forced slave labor force, so they started using french people to fill it.

Please understand I am not implying that I am more or less informed than others. But the nature of the literary piece I was working on dealt specifically with the anti-semitism of the pre-WWII Polish population, a particular Haskalah Jew (Haskalah was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies) and the basis of that anti-semitism as it pertained to the Jews of Warsaw (and conversely all of Poland).

"Polish Death camps" is as much as an insult (and a misnomer) as if someone called our pre-civil war Southern plantations "N***er Owned Farms." Perhaps President Obama would understand the import of his mistake if it was presented to him in that way? Maybe some of the liberals on 285 Bound who brush off this gaff as insignificant would understand it better if present to them in this way?

No... probably not.

Understand, but only talking about myself, some things you mentioned brought back some things that I wanted to learn about, but then made the military a career and it went by the wayside.

I do also have a newpaper (original) from the day Hitler took over Germany. Front page is his picture and back page is all his generals. written in the old german

And now Obama is getting slammed by someone on the left.

The Worst Thing Obama Has Ever Said by Michael Tomasky

I have to say I'm in wholehearted agreement with David Frum on this one. For Obama to refer to a "Polish death camp" is just ghastly. How in the world could that happen? Some callow kid in the speechwriting office didn't know the difference? His or her boss also didn't know? And what of Obama? I will assume that he does know better. But he said the words.

Assuming he knew it was wrong when it was coming out of his mouth, why didn't he just stop and say: "You know, Mr. Karski, it says here 'Polish death camp,' so that's what I said, but I want to correct that. We all know that these were German camps." That's all. Easy peasy. He really should have just taken charge of the moment there and shown some honesty and candor.

If anyone in the big O's orbit reads these scribblings, I would beseech you people to encouarge the boss to correct this record. To take a moment to say at an upcoming event, "You know, I said something really terribly wrong last week, and I want to correct it." And go on to explain why it's important that he do so. That would actually play very well politically--for people to see a politician admit to an error, in public like that! But that is not why I propose it. I propose it because it's right.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... -said.html

The worst thing he ever said? A bit hyperbolic but point made. There's no upside to this. Obama should issue some sort of apology.

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: And now Obama is getting slammed by someone on the left.

.

Yes but many will throw away their integrity to defend anything this administration does or says.

Three million Poles (mostly Catholic) died at the hands of Nazi's in those death camps. I've been to visit Auschwitz and cried for days after. I have friends in Poland and they can see what has happened to this country under Obama. They've been there, done that and don't want to do it again. They are very frightened for America.

Yes, If I actually thought Romney would win, I would be frightened for America, too.

The first to be put to death during the Nazi regime were teachers and artists of all kinds.

Well, if any Nazi death-camps get re-opened, I'll be sure and put that on my list of things to worry about. Right now I'm more worried about bat-sh*t-crazy right-wingers getting into power again.