A Love Story from Out of the Holocaust

Aimee Herd : Oct 15, 2008
News Staff – AP, FOXNews.com

Herman told her, "That was me!"

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Monday, Dec. 27th, 2008, a statement was issued by Herman Rosenblat revealing that he had fabricated the entire story about his first meeting with Roma at the Buchenwald sub-camp, where Roma had purportedly thrown apples and bread over the fence to him. We apologize to our readers for being a part of the many who were taken-in by his fictional story. ?Aimee Herd, BCN.

Herman Rosenblat and Roma Radziki have a connection that binds them together even beyond their loving marriage of 50 years. It dates back to one of the darkest times in human history?the Holocaust. (Photo: AP)

Herman, a teen in the time of Nazi-Germany, had lost his father to Typhus after his family was forced into a Jewish ghetto. He and his brothers were separated from their mother soon after and sent to death camps.

It was there, in Schlieben, Germany, that Herman first met Roma, whose family was posing as Christians in a nearby village.

Roma worked on a farm close to the camp and one day noticed a handsome young man peering out from the barbed wire. Wanting to give him something, she carried only apples, but threw one over the fence.

Herman caught it, and the chance meeting became a daily occurrence, with Roma bringing an apple, or sometimes bread which she threw over the fence to Herman.

"Every day," says Roma, "every day I went."

Not a word was spoken between them for fear they'd be found out, but Roma's routine of bringing apples or bread to her captive friend continued for months until Herman learned he would soon be transferred to another death camp. "Don't come around anymore," he warned the girl who had brought him a flicker of hope in the midst of deep darkness.

Before long, the camp Roma used to visit was liberated by the Russians, and the war came to an end. Both Herman (who moved to London) and Roma (who went to school in Israel) became busy with life, and the memory of their encounters began to fade.

Years later, Herman, who'd since relocated in New York City, reluctantly accepted an invitation for a blind date. The evening went surprisingly well, and their conversation soon landed on where they were during the Holocaust.

Herman's date spoke of a time when she would throw apples over the fence of the camp in Schlieben every day for a prisoner there.

She was the girl! Astonished; Herman told her, "That was me!"

From that fateful reunion, Herman and Roma have been inseparable, and have now been married for 50 years. They have written a children's book about their experience entitled, Angel Girl, and a film may soon follow.

The couple shares their story with various groups and, in spite of the hate imposed on them by the Nazis, the two spread a message of "love not hatred."

You see, before Herman's father died, he had a mandate for his youngest son. He told him, "If you ever get out of this war, don't carry a grudge in your heart, and tolerate everybody."

"That's what I am lecturing about," explains Herman. "Not to hold a grudge and to tolerate everybody; to love people, and to be tolerant of people, no matter who they are or what they are."

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