First Video of Fabricating Holocaust Author Defending Self
ABC confirms that Herman Rosenblat, the notorious fabricator behind Holocaust memoir Angels at the Fence, will appear on Good Morning America tomorrow [Update: it's here]. A preview of what he'll probably say, after the jump.
A plugged-in tipster directed us to the freshly-uploaded YouTube video above, in which Rosenblat speaks to an unseen interviewer. He could be talking to a GMA producer in a pre-interview, doing media training with a publicist, who knows. (The video is carried in a YouTube channel named after Rosenblat, although the title of this video curiously misspells his last name.)
Rosenblat is a genuine Holocaust survivor. So perhaps he'll have some luck attempting a redemption less than two months after he was exposed (Even macho James Frey waited a couple of years.) And maybe he'll be able to somehow sell the rather bold and hard-to-believe story he outlines in the YouTube video: that his wife told him she tossed apples over the fence at some boy in some concentration camp, and that Rosenblat convinced himself he was the boy, even though he was not. Rosenblat said he believed the girl was an angel sent by his mother, who died in the Holocaust.
"In reality, I wasn't telling the truth, because she didn't throw the apple to me. But in my mind I believe she did... I still believe it's me..."
It's interesting that Rosenblat is now roping his wife into the meta-narrative of how he came to fabricate part of Angels. The move is likely to bring her a good deal of scrutiny in the news media.
Rosenblat wants forgiveness. In the video, he tells the story of some sad, unreachable widow whose life was miraculously turned around, somehow, by reading about Rosenblat on the internet.
I did no harm to anybody, in fact I did good to people... I made a mistake and I want America to forgive me.
Actually, Rosenblat needs forgiveness, to sell the (fiction) book and movie projects he's participating in. Both are plugged in the video above, and in all likelihood on GMA, which scored a major "get" in landing the exclusive first TV interview with Rosenblat since his book scandal. (Movie proceeds have been pledged to Holocaust survivor charities. It remains to be seen whether the filmmaker who made that promise keeps his narrative closer to the truth than Rosenblat.)