Another Author Dupes Oprah Winfrey
December 30, 2008 by Jeanne
What is wrong with people? If you write a book and some pieces of it have been fabricated, just come out with it. Don’t try to pretend that this is a 
word-for-word account of your own personal journey. And for goodness sake, if your book gets picked up by Oprah Winfrey, come clean. Immediately.
The book, Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived was heralded as “the single greatest love story” Oprah had featured on her show. In fact, it was the basis of two episodes.
The story goes that a man met his future wife as a child in a Nazi concentration camp. She pretended to be a Christian and tossed apples to him over the fence. After the war, Herman Rosenblat and Roma Radzicki were married and have been enjoying wedded bliss for 50 years.
Sounds plausible and wonderful, right? Heck, it’s even got the words “true story” in the title! Unfortunately, Rosenblat was forced to confess that the story was a hoax after scholars and the book’s publisher noticed inaccuracies (there was no fence at Buchenwald, where this was alleged to have taken place).
As a result, the book has been canceled (it was supposed to be released in February 2009) but the movie will still be produced as a fictional tale.
Again, I have to ask – what is wrong with people? How could you capitalize on a story related to the Holocaust and sleep at night knowing you were lying!? I find that absolutely outrageous. What a slap in the face to those who truly suffered in concentration camps!
Now, I’m wondering what Oprah is going to do about this. When James Frey, the author of A Million Little Pieces, confessed to embellishing his story, she had him on the show and scolded him in a way that I actual thought was slightly unnecessary and completely humiliating (the editor of the book actually called Oprah out as a two-faced jerk – ouch!). He didn’t make up the story (like Rosenblat), he just embellished it. Will she give Rosenblat the Frey treatment? Should she?
image: Amazon.com
I wonder if he wrote it as fiction or not – maybe he was encouraged to call it a “true” story for the sales? He could still release it as fiction, I would think.
It’s totally possible. He just kept saying the story was true to Oprah, though. If he had just come out and said it was fictional, he’d probably still have a book deal. Too bad – it sounds like a nice story.
Ouch. I saw this episode and loved the story. As someone who studied the Holocaust, and having my husband as a descendant from survivors, it’s really hard to hear this. I’m not sure what Oprah should do – other than stop doing her book club with all of this misrepresentation!!!
How awful that the Rosenblats lied about their story and that the publishers and movie makers and Oprah didn’t figure it out. So sad.
Some Holocaust love stories are true. The NY Times featured a story about the famous comic book artists Stan Lee and Neal Adams and a story they were publicizing.
The story is about Dina Gottliebova Babbitt who was a 19 year old art student at Auschwitz. There she was asked by the Jewish head of the children’s camp to paint something to cheer them up. Dina painted a mural of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and in the end, Dina’s art became the reason for her salvation.
Painting the mural for the children caused Dina to be taken in front of Dr. Mengele, the Angel of Death. She thought she was going to be gassed, but she bravely stood up to Mengele and he decided to make her his portrait painter, saving herself and her mother from the gas chamber.
After the war, Dina applied for a job to be an animator and the person interviewing her turned out to be the man who created Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs for the movie. They fell in love and got married. Show White saved Dina’s life twice!