Apples never tossed over the fence

Publisher cancels false memoir of Holocaust

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 his publisher has canceled the release of the book.

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, celebrating their 50th anniversary earlier this year.

Winfrey, who hosted Rosenblat and his wife, Roma Radzicki, on her show twice, called their romance "the single greatest love story" she had encountered in her 22 years on the show. On Saturday night, after learning from Rosenblat's agent that the author had confessed that the story was fabricated, Berkley Books, a unit of Penguin Group that was planning to publish "Angel at the Fence," Rosenblat's memoir of surviving in Schlieben, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, with the help of Radzicki, canceled the book and demanded that Rosenblat return his advance.

Harris Salomon, who is producing a movie based on the story, said he would go ahead with the film, but as a work of fiction, adding that Rosenblat had agreed to donate all earnings from the film to Holocaust survivor charities.

full at: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/29/americas/memoir.php