Holocaust love story revealed to be false

Dec 30 2008

Another story dubbed as a memoir has been revealed to be false. But this time, the story itself has been around for a while, since the Holocaust to be exact. The story is the love between Herman and Roma Rosenblat, who claimed to have met while Herman was in a Nazi concentration camp:

Oprah Winfrey once dubbed it the "greatest love story" she had ever heard: a boy held at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and a girl on the outside who tossed him apples to keep him alive. They eventually married and grew old together.

According to this article from CNN.com, Mr. Rosenblat confessed this past weekend that the story was made up. A book deal that had been in the works was immediately canceled:

Berkley Books immediately canceled publication of Rosenblat’s memoir, "Angel at the Fence," which was set to be released in February.

"Berkley will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work," Berkley spokesman Craig Burke said in a statement.

What makes this story so unbelievable is that the hoax (and that is basically what this is, a hoax) has been going on for years. And only now is the truth being revealed. Another small irony is that once again Oprah finds herself in the middle of another false "memoir", much like the James Frey scandal a few years back (although in this case, Oprah interviewed Mr. Rosenblat more than a decade ago).

Equally disturbing in this case is how Mr. Rosenblat used the Holocaust as a backdrop for his made-up love story. The Holocaust is associated with deep-rooted, strong emotions of hurt, pain and suffering – and this story capitalizes on that to further tug at people’s heartstrings.

But what makes this story so striking and strong, the Holocaust, has also kept anyone from exposing it has a fabrication all these years, according to Professor Ken Waltzer:

"This memoir was at the far end of implausibility, yet until yesterday, no one connected with packaging, promoting, and disseminating it asked questions about or investigated it. Some actively resisted such investigation and tried to shut mine down."

While hindsight is always 20/20, this is an obvious case where questions should have been asked early on and facts checked, especially given the popularity of the story and it’s strong emotional pull.

This might be the final straw for the publishing industry regarding memoirs. I can see most publishers starting to require their authors back up the claims they make in memoirs to ensure what they are printing is true. Especially in these penny-pinching times, publishers cannot risk pouring their resources into a memoir that could turn out to be false.

What do you think? Should publishers scrutinize these types of books more carefully, or is it the responsibility of the author? Leave a comment below with your thoughts!