President Obama's scheduled visit to a former Nazi concentration camp is being done for "political reasons," the president's great-uncle -- who helped liberate that camp -- said in a recent interview.
Obama plans to visit Germany's Buchenwald site as part of his multi-country tour, which begins this week. Charles Payne, Obama's great-uncle who helped liberate a sub-camp of Buchenwald during World War II, spoke frankly about the visit in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
Asked if Obama would be traveling in his footsteps, Payne said: "I don't buy that. ... This is a trip that he chose, not because of me I'm sure, but for political reasons."
He said Obama also might be trying to improve his "standing" with Chancellor Angela Merkel, since "she gave him a hard time during his campaign and also afterwards."
Payne attracted some attention during the campaign last year when Obama mistakenly claimed he helped liberate Auschwitz -- which was actually liberated by Soviet forces. Obama's campaign corrected the mistake after Republicans seized on the error.
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