from "Moving Holocaust memoir exposed as fantasy," David Batty, The Guardian
The saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" seems to be one that publishers could do well to familiarise themselves with after yet another fake memoir scandal. The latest heart-rending true story of triumph over adversity to be exposed as fiction is the Holocaust survivor's tale Angel at the Fence, hailed by Oprah Winfrey as "the single greatest love story" she had ever heard.
The account by Herman Rosenblat told the story of how, as a teenage boy, he was apparently kept alive in a Nazi concentration camp by a nine-year-old girl who threw him food over the camp fence every day for seven months. Miraculously she was never spotted. Even more miraculously, the pair were reunited on a blind date years later when they had both resettled in America.
These remarkable coincidences failed to set off any alarm bells at Berkley Books, which was due to publish the book next month, or in the US Media until the New Republican Magazine asked Holocaust historians about the veracity of the story.
The experts noted, among other things, that it would have been impossible for the couple to meet at a fence because of the Schlieben camp's layout. Rosenblat then admitted he had invented the tale and was forced to return the money he had received for the book. (more)
