Angel Girl pulled after Angel at the Fence fakery
Fallout from the fabulism of Angel at the Fence continued today. The publisher of a children's book adaptation, Angel Girl, pulled that book, the Associated Press reports. Laurie Friedman's Angel Girl, based on Herman Rosenblat's tale of meeting his future wife at a concentration camp, had been released in the fall by the Lerner Publishing Group.
As we noted in Read Street, Rosenblat, 79, whose many admirers had included Oprah Winfrey, acknowledged last weekend that he didn't meet his wife during the war. His memoir, scheduled for release in February, was quickly canceled by Berkley Books.
Adam Lerner, president and publisher of the Minneapolis-based Lerner Publishing Group, said in a statement today that the company had been misled by the Rosenblats.
"We are dismayed to learn about Herman and Roma Rosenblat's recantation of part of their Holocaust survival story," Lerner said. "While this tragic event in world history needs to be taught to children, it is imperative that it is done so in a factual way that doesn't sacrifice veracity for emotional impact."
Friedman said in a statement that the Rosenblats had reviewed her manuscript and assured her of its accuracy. "I wanted to find a way to share what I felt was an important and inspiring message for children. My goal in writing `Angel Girl' was to communicate that even in the darkest of times, no one should give up hope. Unfortunately, I, like many others, am disappointed and upset to now learn of Herman's fabrications."
Herman Rosenblat, a prisoner at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in the 1940s, had charmed the world for years with his story of meeting a young girl who would throw him apples and bread from the other side of a barbed-wire fence. Rosenblat appeared twice on Winfrey's television talk show and was a popular speaker and interview subject.
But scholars doubted Rosenblat, noting that the alleged meeting area at the camp was next to the SS barracks. After numerous inconsistencies were raised recently by The New Republic, he recanted.
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
Comments
The Rosenblats should be ashamed of themselves. Fooling everyone like this!
Posted by: Rachel | December 30, 2008 3:01 PM
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.
Posted by: Sebrina | December 31, 2008 12:55 AM
It is a shame
Rafal
Posted by: Rafal | November 6, 2009 1:14 PM