North Miami Beach, FL – A second book featuring a Holocaust love story between Florida-based Herman and Roma Rosenblat was canceled after the publisher found out that the couple’s amazing tale was not true. A children’s books, based on the Rosenblat’s story is also being recalled.
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For over a decade, Herman Rosenblat, 79, told newspapers, magazines and twice appeared on the Oprah Winfrey TV show to tell the story of how he met his wife-to-be when she threw apples and bread to him over the fence of a Nazi concentration camp.
But under scrutiny from scholars writing in The New Republic, Rosenblat admitted this week that he invented the love story, prompting Penguin Book’s imprint Berkley Books to cancel publication of his memoir due out in February.
Now Lerner Publishing Group, which specializes in children’s books, said it was also recalling a newly released picture book “Angel Girl” based on the Rosenblat’s story after being “shocked and disappointed” to learn the story was not true.
“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,” said Lerner Publishing’s President Adam Lerner in a statement.
“We have been misled by the Rosenblats.”
Lerner said the company had recalled the book from the market, canceled all pending reprints and was issuing refunds on all returned books bought since its publication in September.
Scholars in The New Republic said the story could not be true as it would have been impossible to throw food over the fence at the camp at Schlieben, Germany, where Rosenblat was held as a teenager, putting pressure on the Rosenblats to explain.
Under public scrutiny, Rosenblat’s agent Andrea Hurst said the writer had revealed to her that he invented the crux of the love story although his story about being in the concentration camps and the survival of the writer and his brothers was true.
While both books related to the Rosenblats have now been canceled, Harris Salomon, president of Atlantic Overseas Pictures is pushing ahead with plans to make a $25 million movie about Herman, with filming to start in Hungary in March.
“The documented fact, acknowledged by his critics, is that Herman is a survivor of concentration camps. He found a way to tell his story and bring a message against hate. It is his story,” Salomon said in a statement.
I whould throw apples at im now
Shame because it tars all of the true heroic stories of tragedy and survival with the same untrusting brush. This is a terrible thing
what about all the so called true stories put out by heimishe pulishers are the same thing. all of them are spiced up and are not 100 percent true .
Is his wife Jewish?
Shame! Now this just gives fuel to the Holocaust deniers. They will , of course, say that the WHOLE story is fake.
Why lie for such a sad and tragic saga in Jewish history?
1 of all does anyone know if his wife is jewish ??????? holacaust survivers suffered such horrible things in life it doesn’t matter. Know one knows what they saw and/or what they had to go threw.
Am I missing something here? Who cares if it is or isn’t true? It is a story about survival in the camps. There has been a lot of Holocaust fiction. If it is based on facts, who really cares if she did or didn’t throw him fruit? Especially for a kid’s book.