Herman Rosenblat
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Herman A. Rosenblat ( 1929 – February 5, 2015) was a Polish-born American author, known for writing a fictitious
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
memoir titled ''
Angel at the Fence ''Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived'', written by Herman Rosenblat, was a fictitious Holocaust memoir purporting to tell the true story of the author's reunion with, and marriage to, a girl who had passed him food throu ...
'',Rosenblat, Herman (2009) ''Angel at the Fence'' Berkley Hardcover, purporting to tell the true story of a girl who passed him food through the barbed-wire fence at the Schlieben sub-camp of the
Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...
in World War II. The book was planned to be published in 2009 by Berkley Books, but was cancelled after it turned out that many elements of his memoir were fabricated and some were contrary to verifiable historical facts. Rosenblat later admitted to lying on purpose with the intention of "bringing joy". Before the hoax became public, the film rights to the book were purchased for $25 million by Harris Salomon of Atlantic Overseas Pictures. Other fans of the story include
Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
who has described it as the single greatest love story she heard in over 22 years of hosting her show. The story behind Rosenblat's story is being developed as an independent feature film. In June 2010 Atlantic Overseas Pictures and producer Harris Salomon signed a co-production agreement with Castel Film Studios, a well known studio in Central and Eastern Europe and the studio for '' Cold Mountain'' and ''
Borat ''Borat'' (also known as ''Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'') is a 2006 mockumentary directed by Larry Charles, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakhs, Kazakh jou ...
'' as well as 3rd-i films in London, to produce a feature film about the Herman Rosenblat affair based on an original screenplay by award-winning screenwriter Ivo Marloh entitled ''The Apple'', scheduled for production in 2015. As of 2025, no such film has been released or announced as being in production by any known source.


Life

Rosenblat, a
Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...
, lived in the town of
Piotrków Trybunalski Piotrków Trybunalski (; also known by #Etymology, alternative names), often simplified to Piotrków, is a city in central Poland with 71,252 inhabitants (2021). It is the capital of Piotrków County and the second-largest city in the Łódź Voi ...
before World War II. Following the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
, the Nazis rounded up his family in 1939 along with thousands of others when the
Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto The Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto () was created in Piotrków Trybunalski on , shortly after the 1939 German Invasion of Poland in World War II. It was the first Nazi ghetto in occupied Europe. founded on The town was occupied by the Wehrmacht on ...
was set up. His father had previously died of typhus. Two years later, when Rosenblat was 12 years old, his mother was separated from him and put on a
Holocaust train Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' and other European railways under the control of Nazi Germany and its allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holo ...
to
Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...
during one of the ghetto liquidation actions. About 90% of the inhabitants of the ghetto were sent to
Majdanek Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had three gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...
and Treblinka death camps. He later wrote that he lied to the Germans about his age because the Nazis used older boys for slave labor, and sent younger ones for extermination. In July 1944, with the front lines approaching, he was deported with his three older brothers to
Schlieben Schlieben (, ) is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north of Bad Liebenwerda. Schlieben was the site of a Berga concentration camp, concentration camp during The Holocaust. History From 1815 ...
sub-camp of the
Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...
, until February 1945. He claimed in his memoir that his future wife Roma, a nine-year-old Jewish girl hiding in the town of Schlieben with her family, threw him apples and bread over the electrified, guarded fence of the camp on a daily basis throughout the seven months' period. Shortly before liberation he was brought to the
Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...
camp. After being liberated from the concentration camps, Rosenblat and his brothers were brought to the UK in a group of 730 orphans to start a new life. Rosenblat says he lived in London for four years, where he learned the electrical trade at the
Organization for Rehabilitation through Training ORT (), also known as the Organisation for Rehabilitation through Training, is a global education network driven by Jewish values. It promotes education and training in communities worldwide. Its activities throughout its history have spanned mor ...
school. He then moved to the United States in 1950 and was drafted into the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
in 1951. After serving for two years, he says he moved to New York and opened his own TV repair shop in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. He met Roma Radzicki in the United States on a blind date in 1957, and married her. He later claimed that during the date he had recognized her as the girl who threw apples to him over the fence and proposed on the spot.Cohen, Zen (December 14, 2008)
Couple's story of love started in time of war
''
Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...
''


Holocaust survival hoax


Invention and rise to fame

In 1992 Rosenblat and his wife had run into serious financial problems after the Rosenblat family were victims of an armed robbery that left his son, Kenneth Rosenblat, in a wheelchair and left Rosenblat critically injured. Rosenblat invented the story in the hospital while recovering. Rosenblat stated that his mother had appeared to him at the hospital and had told him to tell his story to the world. In 1994 Rosenblat had a
tax lien A tax lien is a lien which is imposed upon a property by law in order to secure the payment of taxes. A tax lien may be imposed for the purpose of collecting delinquent taxes which are owed on real property or personal property, or it may be i ...
placed on him by the
IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...
for unpaid payroll taxes dating back to 1988, which must have increased the financial pressure on him. According to Holocaust historian
Kenneth Waltzer Kenneth Alan "Kenny" Waltzer (born December 23, 1943) is an American historian and educator, formerly director of the Jewish Studies program at Michigan State University (MSU). His research on the Buchenwald concentration camp has focused on the ...
, Rosenblat changed his own story, replacing it with the love story, and then it must have become difficult to turn back. After he had won Winfrey's contest of love stories he maintained the lie. Rosenblat told the apple story for the first time in late 1995, and he won Winfrey's contest in 1996. Oprah Winfrey interviewed Rosenblat in two different programs, in 1996 and 2007, and she called his story "the single greatest love story, in 22 years of doing this show, we’ve ever told on the air."
Berkley Books Berkley Books is an American imprint founded in 1955 by Charles Byrne and Frederic Klein owned by the Penguin Group unit of Penguin Random House. History Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Compa ...
, an imprint of the Penguin Group, signed Rosenblat up to publish his memoir ''Angel at the Fence'', with Andrea Hurst working as Rosenblat's literary agent. Producer Harris Salomon, of Atlantic Overseas Pictures, made plans to adapt the story into a $25 million movie called ''The Flower at the Fence'', and he had earlier registered a screenplay based on the story with the Library of Congress in 2003.


Discovery of hoax

Jewish professor
Deborah Lipstadt Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18, 1947) is an American historian and diplomat, best known as author of the books ''Denying the Holocaust'' (1993), ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier'' (2005), ''The Eichmann Trial'' ...
had already denounced the story in her personal blog in December 2007. Other Holocaust survivors like Peter Kubicek also denounced the implausibility of the story. Jewish-American blogger Danny Bloom started emailing several historians for help, one of them being Holocaust historian
Kenneth Waltzer Kenneth Alan "Kenny" Waltzer (born December 23, 1943) is an American historian and educator, formerly director of the Jewish Studies program at Michigan State University (MSU). His research on the Buchenwald concentration camp has focused on the ...
. Waltzer had been interviewing survivors for a new book, and he had been told that the story was probably false. In November 2008 Waltzer contacted
forensic Forensic science combines principles of law and science to investigate criminal activity. Through crime scene investigations and laboratory analysis, forensic scientists are able to link suspects to evidence. An example is determining the time and ...
genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their Lineage (anthropology), lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family ...
s Sharon Sergeant and Colleen Fitzpatrick and started investigating the matter. He found out that the prisoners of that concentration camp were prohibited from approaching a camp's fence on pain of death, nor was anyone allowed to approach a fence from the outside. Such perimeter fences were electrified and watched 24/7 by armed guards stationed on guard towers, ready to shoot anyone who approached the fence from either side. The SS barracks were near to the only fence that faced outwards, and prisoners approaching the barracks would have been shot. Waltzer also discovered that Herman's future wife Roma was never in the town of Schlieben, but that she lived throughout that period in a German farm away, near Breslau. Another survivor of the same camp,
Ben Helfgott Sir Benjamin Helfgott (22 November 1929 – 16 June 2023) was a Polish-born British Holocaust survivor, Olympian and champion weightlifter. He was one of two Jewish athletes known to have competed in the Olympics after surviving the Holocaust, ...
, told him that Rosenblat had never told the story before the mid-1990s.Caleb Daniloff
Untrue Stories, a genealogist reveals the painful truth about three Holocaust memoirs: they're fiction
Bostonia (Alumni Magazine of Boston University)
Waltzer started questioning the publisher and the agent about the authenticity of the story, with little success. Some people actively resisted and tried to shut down his investigation. On December 25 and 26, 2008, several scholars and family members published multiple critical articles in ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...
'', the first article using Waltzer's research, and the second adding their own research on top of Waltzer's. On December 27 Rosenblat finally confessed the truth to the producer of his movie, Harris Solomon, and his literary agent, Andrea Hurst. He stated that the apple-tossing part of his backstory was something he only imagined, while stating that the rest of his Holocaust experiences were accurate, however other falsehoods and discrepancies in his remaining story have been discovered since then.Italie, Hillel (December 28, 2008)
Anger, sadness over fabricated Holocaust story.
''
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
''
Barrios, Jennifer (December 28, 2008)
Holocaust survivor Herman Rosenblat recants story.
''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...
''
Rosenblat has not apologized, and claimed that "It was my imagination, and in my mind, I believed it. Even now, I believe it.", and he also said that he did it to bring happiness and hope to people. His family knew about the hoax and tried to convince Rosenblat not to tell it. This caused a division in Rosenblat's family. His last surviving brother, Sam, had hesitated talking to him and he died in 2007. Herman's two children were very uncomfortable with the matter. Despite not agreeing with Rosenblat, the family never revealed the truth to the media or Rosenblat's publishers or producers. The other orphans from Buchenwald knew that the story was very implausible but decided not to say anything. As time passed, the persons knowing about the hoax grew more uncomfortable about keeping silent about it and there was a growing consensus that the truth had to be told.


Reaction to discovery

On December 27, 2008, the same day of Rosenblat's confession, Berkley Group cancelled the book publication, saying that it had received "new information" from Rosenblat's agent. A spokesman said that they would be asking for the money back that they had advanced, and the company has declined making any more comments on the matter. A children's edition of the book, written by a third party, Laurie Friedman of Miami, titled ''Angel Girl'', had been released in September 2008. When Lerner Books learned that the book was based on Rosenblat's falsehoods they said that they wouldn't make any reprint and that they would refund any returned copy. About 2,000 copies were sold. Producer Harris Salomon wasn't aware of Rosenblat's hoax when he started working on his movie of the Rosenblat story, but still intends to produce it, as he had always planned a "loose and fictionalised adaptation" and "the story retains its power to grip audiences worldwide." He had been working with Rosenblat over a six-year period as the original feature film was being developed. According to Salomon, the script for the feature was completed in October 2009 with casting to commence by Celestia Fox in London. Producers Abi Sirokh, Gabor Koltai, Lew Rywin and Thierry Potok contributed to the project. The new motion picture tells the story of Herman Rosenblat, with a style similar to the film ''The Insider''. After the revelation of the hoax, the focus of the film was changed to a psychological love story examining why a Holocaust survivor would make up a story about the Holocaust and the love for his wife while driven by greed, fame and the memory of the Holocaust. Salomon has asked Rosenblat to donate all the earnings of the film to Holocaust survivor charities but Rosenblat refused. Winfrey posted a disclaimer on her website, and in February 2009, she said that she was "disappointed", but she denied having been duped by Rosenblat and that she was "minding my own business."
Gayle King Gayle King (born December 28, 1954) is an American television personality, author and broadcast journalist for CBS News, co-hosting its flagship morning program, ''CBS Mornings'', and before that its predecessor '' CBS This Morning''. She is ...
, a friend of Winfrey's, pointed out that a lot of other people had also been duped and claimed that she was being scapegoated. In July 2009 the website
Gawker ''Gawker'' was an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers that was based in New York City and focused on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month in 2015. Fo ...
reported on a new video released by Rosenblat via
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. The video features Rosenblat describing and re-enacting his Holocaust love story for the producers of the film adaptation of his book, specifically the throwing of apples over the perimeter fence of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, long after that part of his story had been discredited as fake. On September 1, 2009, York House Press published a paperback book titled ''The Apple'', written by Penelope Holt. It tells Rosenblat's life story. Peter Kubicek, an outspoken critic of the original book, reportedly advised the author and is thanked in the preface of the book.


Analysis and repercussions

Holocaust historian Kenneth Waltzer said that it was disturbing that so few people had noticed and inquired about the obvious holes in his history over a decade. Waltzer and others have said that Rosenblat did not need to embellish his story, which was already powerful enough by itself. Waltzer places part of the blame in all those "culture makers" that profited from the diffusion of the story and never doubted even the most implausible parts of it. It appears that the veracity of story was not questioned either by the book publisher or by Oprah Winfrey, and that no
fact-checking Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such che ...
was done to ensure the authenticity of the memoir prior to endorsing it soundly. Deborah Lipstadt and others have harshly criticized Rosenblat for embellishing his story, since this could cause people to doubt the truth of the Holocaust, and encourage
Holocaust deniers Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...
. According to Fitzpatrick, one of Waltzer's collaborators, such hoaxes could be avoided if the publishers spent a few thousand dollars in early fact-checking with historians and genealogists, before deciding to spend huge sums of money for the story. Among a number of other false elements in Rosenblat's story, he claimed that he was scheduled to be gassed at 10am on May 10, 1945, and that the liberation saved him by just two hours. The war ended officially on May 8, and the entire camp had been handed over to the International Red Cross a week earlier.
Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...
had no gas chambers and, as noted by Deborah Lipstadt: "Jewish prisoners were not told ahead of time that they were going to be gassed."Elizabeth Day. The Observer, Sunday 15 February 2009
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See also

*
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(''Au nom de tous les miens'') *
Binjamin Wilkomirski ''Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood'' is a 1995 book, whose author used the pseudonym Binjamin Wilkomirski, which purports to be a memoir of the Holocaust. It was debunked by Swiss journalist and writer in August 1998. The subsequent di ...
(''Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood'', 1995) * Rosemarie Pence ('' Hannah: From Dachau to the Olympics and Beyond'', 2005) *
Enric Marco Enric Marco Batlle (12 April 1921 – 21 May 2022) was a Catalan impostor who claimed to have been imprisoned by Nazi Germany in the Flossenbürg concentration camp during World War II. Born in Barcelona, Marco had volunteered to go to Germany ...
(''Memorias del infierno'', 1978) * Donald J. Watt (''Stoker'', 1995) *
Denis Avey Denis Avey (11 January 1919 – 16 July 2015) was a British veteran of the Second World War who was held as a prisoner of war at E715, a subcamp of Auschwitz. While there he saved the life of a Jewish prisoner, Ernst Lobethal, by smuggling cigar ...
(''
The Man who Broke into Auschwitz ''The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz'' is the title of a claimed autobiographical, but later classified as semi-autobiographical and semi-fictional book by Denis Avey, who is a recipient of a British Hero of the Holocaust award. The book was writte ...
'', 2011) *
James Frey James Christopher Frey ( ; born September 12, 1969) is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, '' A Million Little Pieces'' (2003) and '' My Friend Leonard'' (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stor ...
(''A Million Little Pieces'', 2003)


References


External links

* Video Statements by Herman Rosenblat ** ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenblat, Herman 1929 births 2015 deaths American fraudsters 20th-century American Jews American memoirists American people of Polish-Jewish descent Literary forgeries Polish memoirists Polish fraudsters 21st-century American Jews Impostors Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors Buchenwald concentration camp survivors