Oprah Nearly Duped By Fake Holocaust Memoir

Posted on December 29, 2008

It's time for another fake memoir scandal. This one involves yet another fake Holocaust memoir called Angel at the Fence by Herman Rosenblat. Rosenblat was an inmate at Buchenwald during World War II, but his emotional story of a girl who slipped him food through the fence -- that he later met on a blind date in New York and married -- was totally made up. Berkley has canceled publication of the book and demanded the return of advance monies.

His book, Angel at the Fence, came under public scrutiny after a number of scholars questioned important details. The fabricated story says that when Rosenblat moved to New York after the war he met Roma Radzicki by chance and discovered she was the girl who had thrown apples and bread to him. They fell in love and married. But some questioned Rosenblat's descriptions of Schlieben - a sub-camp of Buchenwald - and said it was impossible to throw food over the fence there.
The book was due to be published by Berkley Books, part of the Penguin Group, in February. Advance publicity had included a couple of appearances by Rosenblat on the chat show hosted by Oprah Winfrey. In a statement, Rosenblat, 79, said: "I wanted to bring happiness to people. "I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world."
His agent Andrea Hurst told the Associated Press: "I question why I never questioned it. I believed it; it was an incredible, hope-filled story."

Can you believe that Oprah had booked him as a guest on her show? She must be beside herself with fury over the possibility that she was going to get stuck with another James Frey moment. Well, crisis averted. But good luck to any memoirists who want to get booked on Oprah. Because it's so not happening anytime soon.