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Herman Rosenblat's False Memoirs: What We Say & Do Does Matter
 The Axiom Of Respect Herman Rosenblat's memoir, Angel at the Fence, is yet another false memoir that has "touched, and betrayed, the world." ("Anger, Sadness Over Fabricated Holocaust Story") In it, Rosenblat weaves the tale of meeting his wife of 50 years, Roma Radzicky, "at a sub-camp of Buchenwald" during the Holocaust when in fact the two met "on a blind date in New York." Regrettably, by writing a story that is not true and calling it fact, not only has Rosenblat duped "his agent and his publisher, [ . . . ] Oprah Winfrey, film producers, journalists, family members, school children, and strangers online," he has also further eroded the general character of our society. As individual citizens, we must recognize that our actions directly affect others, and our nation as a whole, and we must never underestimate the significance of each and every one of us. Defending his deceitfulness, Rosenblat maintains that he intended to "bring happiness" to others, claiming that he "brought hope to a lot of people, [and that his] motivation was to make good in this world." "In a statement issued Saturday through his agent, he described himself as an advocate of love and tolerance who falsified his past to better spread his message." Apparently, Rosenblat never learned that lying always catches up with you and that no true "good" can come from such a misleading fabrication. We hope Rosenblat realizes that his actions hurt many more people than he claims to have helped. For many, "the damage is deep. Scholars and fellow survivors fear that [his] fabrications will only encourage doubts about the Holocaust." Michael Berenbaum, Holocaust scholar and former director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, said, "'In my research I rely upon the survivors to present the specifics of their existence with integrity. When they don't, they destroy so much and they ruin so much, and that's terrible.'" Sadly, we feel that Rosenblat's dishonesty has even farther-reaching implications: With the frequency of such falsifications (Misha Defonseca, Margaret B. Jones, and James Frey to name a few), it is easy to call into question any story that is told or written as fact. With so many people publicly telling bold-faced lies, it is easy to wonder, "Does anyone value telling the truth?" The ripple effect isn't pretty. If we cannot believe an elderly couple like Rosenblat and his wife, whose literary agent Andrea Hurst describes as the "most gentle, loving, beautiful people," then who can we believe? People are constantly serving their own interests, both blatantly and subtly, at the expense of the truth. It's time we as a nation started living according to Magna Sententia and acting as though we actually value honesty. If Rosenblat had believed in and lived his life following Magna Sententia, he would have understood the immeasurable importance in being a person of your word and avoided the pain his deception has caused. If we as a society embraced the value system of Magna Sententia, we would no longer live in a society where suspicion is the norm for good reason. Please remember: What we say and do does matter, and anything short of the truth only causes problems. Anna and Ellie Sherise
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