More Made-Up Memoirs

Oh, YAY. It's another literary liar. I LOVE these guys.

No, really, I do. I am endlessly fascinated with fakers, from Janet Cooke to James Frey to (oh my god my FAVORITE) Margaret Seltzer. Or perhaps I just kind of admire the incredible BALLS it requires to be all, "Yeah, I was an eight-year-old heroin addict who was saved from the Holocaust by a gang of East L.A. wolves who threw apples at me, and stuff. What part of that don't you believe?"

The latest hoax-y goodness is Angel at the Fence. It's another Holocaust memoir, in the grand tradition of Mischa Defonseca and Binjamin Wilkomirski , and is another Oprah-endorsed story, like James Frey.

(Yeah. That's the cover over there. With the white dove on the barbed wire. GAK. UGH.)

At least the guy -- Herman Rosenblat -- really DID survive the Holocaust and spend time at a concentration camp. The rest of the story, unfortunately, is a load of piping hot bullshit. He claims that he survived only with the help of a young Jewish girl (dressed like a Christian farm girl) who tossed him apples and bread over the camp's barbed-wire fence. 12 years later, he was set up on a blind date in New York and...OMFG! IT'S APPLE GIRL!

The couple have been married for 50 years now and have told their story publically many times -- twice on Oprah, who dubbed it "the single greatest love story" she's ever heard. It appeared in magazines, a Chicken Soup for the Soul book and a children's book. Angel at the Fence was going to be, I suppose, a full expanded version of the story and other parts of Herman's life and was scheduled to come out in February.

But then these pesky little things like "facts" and "truth" and (like good old Peggy Seltzer) "family members who aren't particularly down with the whole 'lying' thing" came and ruined the whole story.

Among the problems: the fence. It was, like, fiercely guarded. And stuff.

In his research of maps drawn by ex-prisoners, Dr. Waltzer learned that the section of Schlieben where Mr. Rosenblat was housed had fences facing other sections of the camp and only one fence — on the south — facing the outside world. That fence was adjacent to the camp’s SS barracks and the SS men there would have been able to spot a boy regularly speaking to a girl on the other side of the fence, Dr. Waltzer said. Moreover, the fence was electrified and civilians outside the camp were forbidden to walk along the road that bordered the fence.

Also, his wife would have been lugging those apples a really long way.

Dr. Waltzer also learned from online documentation that Ms. Radzicki, her parents and two sisters were hidden as Christians at a farm not outside Schlieben but 210 miles away near Breslau.

After defending the story as true for months ("No, like...I was at a DIFFERENT fence."), Rosenblat now admits that it's fake, but he only wrote it because his dead mother told him to in a dream and he wanted to make people happy and oh my God, he's really trying very hard to make my head explode with this crap:

I wanted to bring happiness to people, to remind them not to hate, but to love and tolerate all people. I brought good feelings to a lot of people and I brought hope to many. My motivation was to make good in this world. In my dreams, Roma will always throw me an apple, but I now know it is only a dream.

His son is relieved, since he's known about the lie for years and couldn't seem to get dear old dad to shut up about it. Herman's brother was so angry about it the two were no longer on speaking terms at the time of his death two years ago. Yeah, that's bringing a lot of good to the world. At the expense of your family. Also, dude. You SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST. Couldn't you have, you know...just written about THAT?

The book has been thoroughly scapped and will not be published, although a film version is still technically in the works and the producer claims it will be marketed as fiction and the earnings will be donated to charities.

Comments

[jodifur]

you know what makes me so mad about this? I feel like it gives more credibility to the Holocaust deniers. Just surviving the Holocaust is enough. You don't have to lie.

Although there is a part of me that thinks anyone who survived the Holocaust did not survive with all of there mental health intact, you know what I mean?

[Hilary]

First, this piece is hilariously written ("No, like...I was at a DIFFERENT fence.") and also: AGREE with you and Jodifur: the holocaust is like, enough and stuff. How sad is this? Lastly: the cover art is really, really bad.

[Missie]

This story broke my heart in a good way when I first heard them on Oprah, then proceeded to break my heart in a bad way when I heard that he was Mr. Lying McTellFalsehood Pants.

Seriously though, I did wonder when I heard them on Oprah how a little girl managed to get apples to a prisoner, and how other prisoners never found out about it and were all mobbing the fence screaming for apples too. That part never made sense to me.

This whole mess is very very sad.

[cathy burns]

MSU prof debunks concentration camp love story
http://news.msu.edu/story/5778/

[rebecca]

WHY are these pople compelled to do this? This man's concentration camp story should have been good enough. James Frey would have still been a recognized fiction writer if he had told the truth. what is the point of lying?

[Kim]

Would this not have sold as well if it had been marketed as, say, fiction? Or "inspired by true events," like a Lifetime movie?

[Black Hockey Jesus]

Stick to the facts, fakers.

[Barbara]

How about being married for 50 years as a good enough for a book love story? Damn!

[Tabitha]

This hoax is a tragedy. The Rosenblats have hurt Jews all over and given support to those who deny the holocaust. I don't understand why Atlantic Pictures is still proceeding to make a film based on a lie. I also don't understand how Oprah could have publicized this story, especially after James Frey and given that many bloggers like Deborah Lipstadt said in 2007 that the Rosenblat's story couldn't be true.
There are so many other worthwhile projects based on genuine love stories from the Holocaust. My favorite is the one about Dina Gottliebova Babbitt - the beautiful young art student who painted Snow White and the Seven Dwarves on the children's barracks at Auschwitz. This painting became the reason Dina and her Mother survived Auschwitz. After the end of the war, Dina applied for an art job in Paris. Unbeknownst to Dina, her interviewer was the lead animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They fell in love and got married. Now that's a romantic love story! I also admire Dina for her tremendous courage to paint the mural in the first place. Painting the mural for the children caused her to be taken to Dr. Mengele, the Angel of Death. She thought she was going to be gassed, but bravely she stood up to Mengele and he made her his portrait painter, saving herself and her mother from the gas chamber.

Also, Dina's story has been verified as true. Some of the paintings she did for Mengele in Auschwitz survived the war and are at the Auschwitz Birkenau Museum. The story of her painting the mural of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the children's barrack has been corroborated by many other Auschwitz prisoners, and of course her love and marriage to the animator of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the Disney movie after the war in Paris is also documented.

Why wasn't the Rosenblatt's story checked out before it was published and picked up to have the movie made?? I would like to see true and wonderful stories like Dina's be publicized, not these hoax tales that destroy credibility and trust.

[jodifur]

Tabitha-I researched the holocaust for a year and never once heard that story. That is a gorgeous story.

There are so many lovely stories that came out of the holocaust, non jews risking their lives to save jewish children, you really don't have to look for to find something.