The XX Factor : Holocaust

Ixnay on the Candy Coating

Melinda Henneberger — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:36:00 GMT

Well, I end the year with a mea culpa : I should have read the New Republic piece about Holocaust survivor Herman Rosenblat before piping up to defend him. But even after doing so, I agree most with this part of what one of the scholars who initially...(read more)

What About Mrs. Rosenblat?

Noreen Malone — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:28:00 GMT

Since, as Juliet points out, Herman Rosenblat probably isn't delusional, what are we to make of his wife's role in the whole affair? She may not have written the book, but she has gone on television with her husband to tell the tale, making her just as...(read more)

More on Herman Rosenblat

Juliet Lapidos — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:36:00 GMT

Melinda , Herman Rosenblat may not need a lecture from us , but perhaps he needs one from fellow survivors. If he'd written a memoir about how he kept his sanity by imagining a girl tossing apples at him, that'd be one thing. And if he were delusional,...(read more)

Once More, With Subtitles

Melinda Henneberger — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:58:00 GMT

Ben , your response to my defense of Herman Rosenblat made me think that maybe my post was itself too inaccessible, so let me be clearer: My point wasn't that films about the Holocaust have been made in other countries, too. (Duh.) It was that the impulse...(read more)

The Holocaust, Hollywood Style

Juliet Lapidos — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:59:00 GMT

Here's a guest post from Ben Crair, an assistant editor at The Daily Beast who wrote an article for Slate this week on Hollywood Holocaust films. I hoped that my article on Holocaust film would provoke some discussion, and now that some XX Factor contributors...(read more)

Lies, and Also Exploitation

Emily Bazelon — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:01:00 GMT

Good points, Susannah . At least two more reasons to be outraged by Herman Rosenblat's faked memoir: It can only encourage Holocaust deniers, as Rosenblat's friends and family have pointed out while expressing outrage at him. And it's part of a disturbing...(read more)

The Truth Matters

Susannah Breslin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:22:00 GMT

Melinda : Reading your post, I kept expecting to get to the part where you said you were kidding. Herman Rosenblat's grotesque "reimagining" of his time spent at a Nazi concentration camp is more obscene than little harm done. As the New Republic exposed,...(read more)

Lies, Damn Lies, and Memoirs

Melinda Henneberger — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:17:00 GMT

I'm having a hard time summoning a lot of outrage over the story of Herman Rosenblat, the Holocaust survivor who reimagined his stay in a subcamp of Buchenwald. In his (now canceled) and unfortunately subtitled memoir, Angel at the Fence: The True Story...(read more)