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It's been on Oprah and in the New York Times, so you know this scandal about Herman Rosenblat's fake Holocaust memoir (well, real Holocaust, fake apple-tossing) is big. But did you know a Boston boy might've exposed it all? Forget The New Republic's Christmas story; self-described Tufts alum ('71) Dan Bloom claims he uncovered the scandal on his own website on October 15 and convinced TNR's Gabe Sherman to cover it.
The basics of Herman Rosenblat's love story: he was in a concentration camp, a girl tossed food (specifically apples) to him over a wall; years later, they met serendipitously in the US and eventually married. Critics say there are many holes in the story. There's apparently no way the eventual wife could have tossed food over the walls of Schlieben, Rosenblat's concentration camp; detractors also wonder why Rosenblat never told anyone about his special visitor at the time. It hasn't been verified that Rosenblat's wife's family lived in the area of Schlieben, and even Rosenblat's own brother didn't believe the tale—in fact, it created quite a rift between the men.
Rosenblat's publisher (Berkley Books, part of Penguin) has pulled the memoir by now, and a children's book based on the same tale is being yanked from shelves as well. So there's certainly reason to doubt the love story—but is there reason to believe Bloom's the mastermind behind its unraveling? The Jossip post and Bloom's unending responses to it offer a lot of evidence, most of it pointing to insanity, if nothing else. But one burning question remains: why wouldn't the enterprising Bloom just write the story himself, rather than nag Sherman to do it—thus giving TNR the opportunity to break the story and post extensive followup? Very little makes sense about this whole situation. We're glad truth has been told, but a bit dismayed that the apple-tossing and improbable-later-life-meeting might not have occurred—the idea had us pretty misty-eyed, if you want the truth.
Bloom is now asking Oprah to have the Rosenblats on her show again, for a James Frey style apology. When will the memoir madness end?
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Kerry,
Great post. You got most of it right. But self-described Tufts alum? Since when do Tufts grad have to put up with being called ''self-described Tufts alums''? [SMILE] Also you forgot to write "Boston boy living in Taiwan" -- I haven't been in Boston since 1975 when I hightailed it down to DC to work at the Kennedy Center, as a ticket taker the AFI film theater there. Let me tell you about my run-in with Henry Kissinger later. And Ben Bradlee.
But other than you most of it right. But one thing: you asked why I didn't just write it myself. I did. REPEAT: I did. I wrote and publshed a news article about the hoax and the smoking guns on October 15 in Montreal, editor Anne Howard at RushPRnews and in San Diego Jewish World, editor Donald Harrison. October 15! But nobody read them. [SIGH] Even when I sent the published articles with October 15 dateline to the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Miami Herald and the LA Times, not one response. So I wrote a second article, even more take down, pubbed on Dec. 6 in the San Diego paper, and again, media silence. Radio silence. It was liked throwing a pebbile into a pond and no ripples appearing. So as publication date of the book was approaching, I zeroed in on Gabe Sherman, who I found my lucky google find, never knew him before, but he had done good work on earlier hoax books in Slate, so I emailed him. He said "Call me Danny." I did. For three days and nights I bent his ear fowards and backwards until he finally "You would please stop badgering me and leave me alone!" I said:"Okay, Gabe, I will not call you or email again. If you need me, you know how to find me. But believe me, what i have just told is the just the tip of the iceberg. Call those contacts I told you about and they will dish. They have PHDs, unlike me, who just has a BA from Tufts, 1971. (I didn't actually that, but you get the drift). AND: the upshot is that Gabe got off his tuches, made some cold calls and delivered the best hoax take down in publishing history, bar none. He deserves a Pulitzer for that two-part series. He pulled the rabbit out of the hat. My earlier articles were nothing compared to what he did. Gabe is ace NYC reporter, and I salute him. I told him so a hundred times already. But did he say "thanks Danny for giving me that story on a silver platter, top contacts and smoking gun quotes and all" ? Not once. Not yet. I guess "thank you" is a dirty word in America now. Ouch!
But you know, this is NOT about me or Gabe, or who got there first or silliness like that. This was about finding the truth, and in fact, a team of about 25 people from around the world, with me manning the press center here in Taiwan, using the blogosphere as a tool and weapon, we all did it together. And NOT with joy. This was a sad sad story from the get go. I began working on it on October. I am moving on now. To the Oprah Invite Herman campaign. A lesson in forgiveness. I wonder what people feel about this idea.?
Dish. Tell me. My email is an open book: danbloom AT gmail
-- Danny Bloom
[really a Tufts 1971 alum. Went to college with Steve Tisch the Hollywood mogul and NY Giants CEO. Ask Steve, he knows me. And John Blumenthal, ace Hollywood screenwriter, former Playboy columnist and great comic novelist.]
"But the really sad thing about Rosenblat’s case is that he didn’t make up the lie in order to sell his book, even if it did become the book’s major selling point. As The New Republic dug deeper, interviewing his relatives and friends, it became clear that this was a lie he and Roma had told for many years, even decades, risking the anger of the brothers who knew it wasn’t true. No one knows how the mind really works, whether this sad scandal was Rosenblat’s way of obtaining a final confession, a final release from his lie."
What he and Roma have lost is more than their credibility: it is the shared fiction that, for whatever reasons, seems to have been the bedrock of their marriage for so many years. As a reader, I am bewildered by Rosenblat’s lie; as a human being, I can’t help but feel sorry for the man."
Well said in INDIA by :
nilanjanasroy@gmail.com
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/nilanjana-s-roygreatest-love-story-never-told/00/06/345474/
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By the way, Kerry, one final note. What caught my attention about this story going around the Internet when I first heard about in October was the BLIND DATE part. That is what got my going. I am not a historian and I knew very little about the concentration camps other than what we all know from movies and memoirs and novels. The apples over the fence thing didn't catch my atttention. What I knew was a total "fabrication", to put it gently, was the BLIND DATE part. I mean, not in this universe. I wonder if I was the only person to be bothered by the BLIND DATE part of the improbable tale? I am sure I was not the only one. But people really really wanted to believe in this miracle romantic love story from the ashes of the Holocaust. WHY? Why were so many people gullible in this situation. It's worth a good PHD disseration at, say, my self-described alma mater, no?
So now it's official. I really WAS there when it happened. I was not making any of it up. Neal Rubin reports from Detroit:
http://news.google.com/news?q=%22daniel%20bloom%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=bn
Profesor Waltzer was a key part of an investigation that should have been done by Rosenblat's publisher, but instead wound up being conducted by a reporter from the New Republic, Gabriel Sherman, who was *pestered* into action by a quote unquote *strikingly eccentric* American expatriate in Taiwan and self-descrined Tufts alum named Danny Bloom, aka Daniel Bloom, aka douchebag.
and this:
In Taiwan, a former newspaper editor named [Daniel Bloom] read about the forthcoming book -- which has now been scrubbed -- and simply didn't buy it. He began calling and e-mailing state- side reporters, among them Gabriel Sherman of the New Republic, who dialed Waltzer at MSU after getting his name and contact email from Danny Dan Daniel.