Angel at the Fence
Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived, written by
Prior to being exposed as a fabrication, the film rights to the book were purchased for $25 million by producer Harris Salomon of Atlantic Overseas Pictures. Other fans of the story included Oprah Winfrey, who described it as the single greatest love story she had heard in 22 years of doing her show.
The story
Fabricated by Rosenblat, the story states that, beginning in the winter of 1944, a nine-year-old Jewish girl, posing as a Christian from a local farm, met Rosenblat at the electrified perimeter fence of the Schlieben concentration camp and tossed him an apple over the fence. She continued passing him food for seven months until he was transferred to another camp. According to Rosenblat, they met in 1957 on a
Authenticity questioned
Several Holocaust scholars, including Deborah Lipstadt, raised questions about “the central premise of his narrative — that a girl met him at the fence and that very girl became his wife,” and suggested that that premise "is, at the very least, an embellishment, and at worst, a wholesale fabrication."[3] Friends and family members also raised questions about the truth of statements in the book.
Professor
Rosenblat and the publisher initially maintained that the story was truthful.[7] Berkley Books subsequently stated that it was "canceling publication of Angel at the Fence after receiving new information from Herman Rosenblat's agent, Andrea Hurst," and "will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work."[8] Rosenblat, who was in fact imprisoned in Schlieben, has acknowledged that the story of meeting his wife there was invented.[9]
Related works
A children's version of the story, entitled Angel Girl (
In August 2009, York House Press published a paperback by Penelope Holt titled The Apple: Based on the Herman Rosenblat Holocaust Love Story (
In June 2010, Salomon and Atlantic Overseas Pictures signed a co-production agreement with Castel Film Studios, the largest film studio in Central and Eastern Europe and the studio for
See also
- Misha Defonseca (Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, 1997)
- Martin Grey(Au nom de tous les miens)
- Binjamin Wilkomirski(Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood, 1995)
- Rosemarie Pence (Hannah: From Dachau to the Olympics and Beyond, 2005)
- Enric Marco (Memorias del infierno, 1978)
- Donald J. Watt (Stoker, 1995)
- The Man who Broke into Auschwitz, 2011)
References
- ^ a b Angel at the Fence from the U.S. Penguin Group website
- ^ "Anger, sadness over fabricated Holocaust story". Publication of disputed Holocaust memoir canceled. Associated Press. December 27, 2008. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
- ^ a b c Sherman, Gabriel (December 26, 2008). "The Greatest Love Story Ever Sold". The New Republic. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
- ^ Rich, Motoko; et al. (December 28, 2008). "False Memoir of Holocaust Is Canceled". The New York Times. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
- ^ Habermehl, Kayla (January 14, 2009). "MSU professor debunks couple's Holocaust hoax". The State News.
- Detroit News.
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave (December 26, 2008). "Disputed Holocaust Memoir is Defended". The New York Times. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
- ^ Italie, Hillel (December 27, 2008). "Publisher says it will cancel publication of disputed Holocaust memoir 'Angel at the Fence'". Bay Ledger News Zone. Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
- National Public Radio
- ^ The Apple Archived September 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sherman, Gabriel (December 26, 2008). "Wartime Lies". The New Republic. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
- ^ Herman Rosenblat's Holocaust memoir of love is exposed as a hoax from The Times