The truth is inspiring enough

The Holocaust was the darkest event in the recorded history of the world. It is such a disturbing concept that many people have trouble wrapping their minds around it. For some, the thought of people as evil as Nazis hosting other humans in a place as horrible as a concentration camp is too hard to think about. But Holocaust deniers don’t even bother thinking about it. They simply deny that it happened.

Tragically, the Holocaust did happen. However, a man named Herman Rosenblat and his wife Roma could have damaged the credibility of other Holocaust recollections when they fabricated a story claiming it was the tale of the way they met.

Readers love a book about romance, especially when it’s laced with the prospect of a tragic ending. So Herman thought the “true” story of how Roma tossed apples over the barbed-wire fence every day when he was a prisoner in a concentration camp would be an instant hit. After all, romance and the Holocaust are not typically associated.

The Rosenblats’ love story first surfaced when it was entered in a Valentine’s Day romance contest in the mid-1990s. Even Oprah embraced the story and had the couple on her show. Before it was discovered that the memoir was a lie, Winfrey called it the single greatest love story she had ever heard.

I call it the single most insensitive story I’ve ever heard. Who do the Rosenblats think they are? There are survivors with equally compelling stories to tell, and theirs are true. By making up a story in a ruthless attempt to get a book deal, the Rosenblats have allowed deniers to continue denying the real facts of the Holocaust.

Mr. Rosenblat actually was a prisoner in a concentration camp; that part is true. That’s why it’s so shocking that a survivor who lived through hell during World War II would choose to use his story as the backdrop to a lie. His real memoir probably would have been inspirational enough. Though his real memoir will never get published after this scandal, and it definitely won’t get a spot in Oprah’s Book Club, Rosenblat might just get a few more moments of airtime on the show if Dan Bloom can help it.

Bloom, a freelance reporter and English teacher in Taiwan, helped reveal the Rosenblats’ fabrications and is setting up a grassroots Internet campaign asking Oprah to allow Mr. Rosenblat back on her show.

“If the public can see Mr. Rosenblat apologize and show remorse in public, they will forgive him since he is an old man who really did suffer in the Holocaust,” Bloom said via e-mail from Taiwan.

I, too, would like a public apology from Mr. Rosenblat. But I don’t care if the public forgives him. I do hope that he can somehow repair the damage he inflicted on every Holocaust survivor who has a story of pain, heartache and love. Maybe by apologizing he will be able to restore the sacredness of the truth.