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Oprah-Endorsed Holocaust Memoir Attacked as Fake

Experts say author's Buchenwald love story couldn't have happened

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 24, 2008 2:28 AM CST

(Newser) – The Oprah-hyped author of an amazing memoir of love and Holocaust survival is being labeled the latest publishing fake by some researchers, the New Republic reports. Herman Rosenblat tells a poignant story of how a young girl saved him when he was a child prisoner at Buchenwald by giving him food over the fence daily. He married that same girl years later after a blind date. But now Holocaust experts say his tale would have been impossible.

Neither Rosenblat nor the girl would have been allowed anywhere near the fence, according to experts, and Rosenblat's fellow survivors say he never mentioned the girl. The president of a studio soon to start filming a movie based on the story is fiercely defensive of Rosenblat, although he acknowledges the story may have been embellished. Critics say that while Rosenblat's wartime suffering is not in doubt, adding a kitschy love story sanitizes the horrors of the Holocaust.

Herman and Roma Rosenblat pose for a photo in their North Miami Beach, Fla. home, i September as they talk about Angel Girl.
Herman and Roma Rosenblat pose for a photo in their North Miami Beach, Fla. home, i September as they talk about "Angel Girl."   (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
Family photographs hang on the wall of Herman and Roma Rosenblat's North Miami Beach, Fla. home.
Family photographs hang on the wall of Herman and Roma Rosenblat's North Miami Beach, Fla. home.   (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
Herman and Roma Rosenblat pose for a photo in their North Miami Beach, Fla. home as they talk about Angel Girl.
Herman and Roma Rosenblat pose for a photo in their North Miami Beach, Fla. home as they talk about "Angel Girl."   (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
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A book trailer to promote the children's picture book 'Angel Girl.'   (LernerPublishing)

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That he was able to meet at a fence with a girl in hiding every day through the winter months of 1945 without anybody knowing, or anybody seeing, it's just not plausible.
- Professor Kenneth Waltzer, director of the Jewish Studies program at Michigan State University

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
Shannonals
Dec 27, 2008 2:01 AM CST
Doesn't she have a staff who vets these people out?
Guest
Dec 27, 2008 1:21 AM CST
ya, i am investing my money, '' you will listen any story''
Guest
Dec 27, 2008 1:18 AM CST
'' even i fake, you going to listen to me ''

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