Why Not Try Fiction? Oprah Fooled By Another Memoir: Angel at the Fence
29 December 2008, 10:30 AM. By Cindy Casares
Herman Rosenblat’s holocaust memoir Angel at the Fence: the True Story of a Love That Survived which Oprah Winfrey called, “the single greatest love story, in 22 years of doing this show, we’ve ever told on the air.” turns out to be, um, probably untrue. It all started when Rosenblat, a holocaust survivor, entered a Valentine’s Day newspaper writing contest for the most romantic story. In it, he claimed that he was kept alive as a teenager in 1945 in the Schlieben concentration camp, part of the Buchenwald complex, by a nine year-old girl named Roma Radzicky who threw apples and bread to him over a barbed wire fence outside the camp.
Rosenblat was moved to another camp and claimed in the story that he never saw his young friend again until the late 1950’s when he was living in New York and randomly met her on a blind date. There they fell in love and eventually married. So sweet! Oprah had them on her show! A book deal followed! Then a movie deal! Except it’s probably not true! Historians and holocaust experts say no other survivors of the camp can recall a girl throwing food over the fence and experts say it would have been impossible for a civilian to approach the fence that way. Plus, the couple never told any of their friends or family the story until the 1990’s. And now Rosenblat’s publishers, Berkley Books, part of Penguin Group (USA), who were set to release the book in January are asking for their money back. Also, a movie based on the book was set to go into production in March and the guy who was going to make it feels “let down.” Can we all start buying fiction now?
Publisher scraps tale of Holocaust love [Guardian]
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Oprah is so gullible! Her team should be able to do a better screening job than that. Remember how Smoking Gun blew Frey out of the water? Same thing, Oprah does not do her homework and there she is with egg on her face again! Pooooooooor Oprah!
As one of your resident Jews, I want to throw in my two centavos. At first, I didn’t think it was such a big deal for the everybody to make a fuss about. But I realized that the truth is there are a lot of morons who continually try to deny the Holocaust even existed. And for this guy to tell this story as “memoir” instead of “fiction” gives more fire to those morons. Don’t be making stuff up about the Holocaust, Moishe, or you’re giving those who would deny the truth altogether a little bit of credibility.
Oprah is a fucking feminist cunt. If I ever date a woman who tells me she watches Oprah I will dump her on sight.
Tory, you misogynistic bigot: to hell with you and your slurs (Yes, the c-word is a slur, y’know, what bigots use to prove they’re asshats).
Your hysteria is showing What does this have anything to do with gender? Nothing! Idiota! Jesus, you would dump a woman (as if you could ever have one that wasn’t a blow-up doll) b/c she asked you to watch a TV show?! Talk about hyper-sensitive.
Anyways, back to La Oprah: Ha! That idiot got fooled–again! Serves her right, thinking she’s a damn God. But the worst part of this story is this: someone who survived the damn Holocaust felt the need to embellish his story. Isn’t that ridiculous?!
Especially after James Frey, I can’t figure out why Oprah wouldn’t have seen the bloggers like Deborah Lipstadt who said their story couldn’t be true way back in 2007. This hoax is a tragedy especially now, when Bernie Madoff’s have given Jewish good name a black eye. I am appalled to hear that the movie maker is still proceeding to make a movie based on this lie.
There are so many other worthwhile projects based on true love stories from the Holocaust like the one about Dina Gottliebova Babbitt - the beautiful young woman who painted Snow White and the Seven Dwarves on the children’s barracks at Auschwitz - and after the liberation met and married the animator who did the original Disney movie. What a romantic love story.
I also love Dina’s story because of her tremendous courage to paint the mural in the first place, which caused her to have to stand up to Dr. Mengele, the Angel of Death. She was so brave to stand up to Mengele and convince him to make her his portrait painter, saving herself and her mother from the gas chamber. Some of these paintings Dina did for Mengele survived the war and are at the Auschwitz Birkenau Museum, and 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, so Dina’s story is true beyond any doubt. 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.
Yes I would think for the money she pays her staff. THEY WOULD GET THINGS RIGHT.
This is what you get when you have a company full of estrogen (women) fact-checking guests. Women don’t know what fact-checking is - everything they do is based on illogical emotion. Leave it to the men to methodically fact-check authors before they appear on the show. Oprah still hasn’t learned her lesson.
Methinks that “Ronald” is a Tory. He’s probably a WOMAN too, because men wouldn’t write such inflammatory things! You women! You’re so…womanny! Why don’t you go do some…woman things…and leave us men alone?! Right, Ronald? Tory, can I get a witness? I have to go off and be manly right now, so g’bye!
Funny story…Ronald aka Tory decided to come to my site and give me a piece of his muy macho mente:
“You’re damn wrong, motherfucker. I suggest some manhood training at manhood101.com It’s free and you DEFINITELY need it you pussy.”
So I guess he was serious, and not just trying to make Janeiro pop a blood vessel. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, on the off-chance it was performance art. Guess not.
So ladies: there’s a real catch out there for you. And he’s a real man, not a pussy like yours truly.
Um…just out of curiosity…whatever happened to the real issue of anti-semitism and Holocaust “debunkers” that this post used to be about? Macho lunkheads are a much more common issue. Excuse me while I go wash off some of this errant testosterone that spilled all over me.
@ escobar: What a charming anecdote! If real men spend their time harassing people online and belittling causes about which they have little to no understanding, then I guess the sort of males I count as friends and boyfriends are lacking in that special brand of utter stupidity that makes men… men. I guess I’ll just continue fraternizing exclusively with faux-men. And lurving it.
@Alex: I’ll be faux for you any day, you fabulous broad.
The Rosenblat story is so sad. Why is Atlantic Pictures making a film based on a lie? Why didn’t Oprah check the story out before publicizing it, especially after James Frey and given that many bloggers like Deborah Lipstadt said in 2007 that the Rosenblat’s story couldn’t be true.
Genuine love stories from the Holocaust do exist. 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 to cheer them up. 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. It’s such a romantic love story. Another reason I love Dina’s story is the tremendous courage she had 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.
Dina’s story is also verified to be 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.