Holocaust memoir shelved amid dispute

A Holocaust memoir written by author Herman Rosenblat will not be published by Berkley Books due to questions about its veracity, the U.S. publisher says.

The Penguin Group USA division said a statement that the cancellation of the book’s impending publication came after Berkley received new information from Rosenblat’s agent, Andrea Hurst, Publishers Weekly said Friday.

The cancellation of the February 2009 publication for Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived was likely due to a report by The New Republic regarding claims by Holocaust scholars.

Angel is Rosenblat’s alleged account of how a young girl routinely gave him apples through the gate of the Nazi concentration camp where he was imprisoned during World War II, Publishers Weekly said.

Rosenblat, who must now return all publisher payments, tells how he then met the girl 12 years later on a blind date in New York, leading to a happy marriage.

But, according to the Republic, several Holocaust scholars claim there is no way a girl would have been able to have access to a concentration camp fence as detailed in the memoir.