Herman Rosenblat and his wife, Roma Radzicki Rosenblat, at home in Florida. The story of their meeting while he was in a concentration camp during World War II has been shown to be false.
A man whose memoir about his experience during the Holocaust was to have been published in February has admitted that his story was embellished, and on Saturday evening his publisher canceled the release of the book.
A bound proof of “Angel at the Fence” circulated in advance of the publication date.
And once again a New York publisher and Oprah Winfrey were among those fooled by a too-good-to-be-true story.
This time, it was the tale of Herman Rosenblat, who said he first met his wife while he was a child imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp and she, disguised as a Christian farm girl, tossed apples over the camp’s fence to him. He said they met again on a blind date 12 years after the end of war in Coney Island and married. The couple celebrated their 50th anniversary this year.
In truth the section of Schlieben where Rosenblat was housed had fences facing other sections of the camp and only one fence — on the south — facing the outside world. That fence was adjacent to the camp’s SS barracks and the SS men there would have been able to spot a boy regularly speaking to a girl on the other side of the fence. Moreover, the fence was electrified and civilians outside the camp were forbidden to walk along the road that bordered the fence. Additionally, Ms. Radzicki, her parents and two sisters were hidden as Christians at a farm 210 miles away near Breslau.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/books/29hoax.html?_r=1
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