Gabriel Sherman
The New Republic
On February 3, Berkley Books, the mass-market division of the Penguin Group, is slated to publish a Holocaust memoir titled Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived. The author, Herman Rosenblat, who is a retired television repairman now living in Miami, recounts his experience as a teenage boy during the Holocaust at Schlieben, a sub-division of the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp. In the winter of 1945, Herman meets a nine-year-old girl–herself a Jew masquerading as a Christian at a nearby farm–when she shows up one day outside the camp and tosses him an apple over the barbed-wire fence. For the next seven months, the girl at the fence delivers Herman food each day, until he is suddenly transferred to another camp. Fast forward to Coney Island, 1957: Herman, now in his 20s and settled in New York, reluctantly agrees to a blind date with a young Polish immigrant named Roma Radzicki. They speak of their time during the war. Roma mentions a boy she had helped to survive in a camp. She said she fed him apples. A flash of recognition. Months later, Herman marries Roma, his angel at the fence.
| Teresa, OH |
December 24th, 2008 12:25 pm ET Wow, this is an absolutely incredible "story". I want to believe it is true, but I am having flashbacks of the guy on Oprah a few years back: A Million Little Pieces the memoir by James Frey. The girls with the apples always get the boys in trouble... |
|
| Tammy, Berwick. LA |
December 24th, 2008 12:26 pm ET Isn't surviving the atrocities of the Holocaust enough of a miracle without having to embellish it? Isn't finding a true love to spend life with enough of a miracle without having to embellish it? Here's hoping the experts are wrong this time. If not, those who made the story up and spread it will hopefully have to answer for the dishonesty at some point. Those who survived, those who perished, and those who told the truths of the Holocaust deserve that much. Those of us who want to understand deserve it as well. |
|
| Annie Kate |
December 24th, 2008 10:03 pm ET I hope this story isn't released as true to then die in flames as being found out to be false. Fact checking seems to have gone out of fashion. However, the story is lovely and while I would like to believe it, I agree with the people that say if you tell a Holocaust story that turns out to be untrue then it brings the veracity of the Holocaust into question for some people. |
|
|
Comments have been closed for this article |
||
A behind the scenes look at “Anderson Cooper 360°” and the stories it covers, written by Anderson Cooper, the AC360° staff and a network of contributors. Insight you can’t find anywhere else.
We search the news each day to show you what’s on our radar and what we’re planning for the show each night.
For more details, read our tips on how to win 360° approval for comments.
Send your instant feedback to Anderson Cooper 360°.
- Real-life effects of reform getting lost in the noise
- Evening Buzz: Buying Health Care Reform Votes
- Live Blog from the Anchor Desk 12/21/09
- U.S. soldiers in Iraq could face courts-martial for getting pregnant
- FAQs about health care reform
- Interactive: Brittany Murphy’s acting career
- Senate health care reform bill
- House health care reform bill
- Interactive: The top 10 Health-Care-Reform Players
- Video: Child custody battle continues
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2005
