"The Tattooist of Auschwitz" by Heather Morris has been debunked. Now what?

TO DEBUNK a novel means, according to several dictionaries I consulted, ''to expose the sham or falseness of a book."

Some synonyms for debunk:

                                                                        
discredit, rebut, refute, shoot down, expose

to show that something is less important, less good, or less true than it has been made to appear:

[The writer's aim was to debunk a controversial Holocaust novel  written by a screenwriter wannabee in Australia who by her own admission knew very little about Jewish history or culture and set her novel in the 1940s and had many big fat white lies in its setting and story arc, as the Auschwitz Center and Museum in Poland laid out in a 7 - page fact-checking sheet]]

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So now that the controversy surrounding Heather Morris' debunked novel "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" continues to make headlines in Australia, North America and Europe, there are some important questions that must be asked.

 

What the answers will be we will find out when this blog post goes out to a dozen or so literary critics and Holocaust historians from around the world.

 

What they say in their answers will be posted here in a follow-up post, and depending on the people concerned, their real names will be used to identify them if they so choose, or if they also choose to remain anonymous, we will keep their names and country private and identify them only in a vague way such as "According to a commenter who is aware of the ongoing contreversy, he/she replied as follows."            

My questions (and feel free to ADD your questions here in the comments or in a private email to me if you have a question that is not included in the list below): see preliminary answers by this blogger below in RED

 

1. Should the novel be recalled and all returned copies shredded? YES! And should the publishers stop selling the novel immediately since it was published under utterly false premises? YES!

2. Should the tagline on the cover of the novel that reads "based on a true story" be removed from all future covers of the book in future printings in all languages and in all countries, with new cover created that reads ''a novel by Heather Morris"? YES!

3. Should alleged movie project to turn the novel into a 4-6 part TV series in 2020 be cancelled entirely, given the way the book has been debunked, or should the TV project just be postponed until a new script that takes out the ''based on a true story'' tagline from the opening credits and movie poster and a promotional movie material and reflects the criticism and critical remarks the book has received from literary critics, newspaper reporters and the Auschwitz Museum in Poland? YES!

4. Should the non-Jewish author Heather Morris and her non-Jewish editor/publisher in Melbourne Angela Meyer apologize publicly in an op-ed in a major Australian newspaper or the New York Times or the UK Guardian for their mistakes in presentation and lack of true vetting of the book before publication and their lack of attention to the real facts of the Nazi Holocaust? YES!

5. Should the Australia print, TV and radio media reflect more on how they ''enabled'' this novel from the very beginning by overlooking its false presentation as ''based on a true story'' when in fact it wasn't based on a true story at all? YES!

6. Should the UK Guardian delete an un-edited and un-vetted obituary of Lali Sokolov after his death in 2006 at the age of 90 and written and submitted by Heather Morris herself (even though she was not a member of the Sokolov family, and most newspaper obits are written either by a professional reporter for the Guardian or a family member) for publication in the Guardian in January of 2007 when she was still working on the story of Lali for a screenplay she intended to shop around the film producers? The obit is still online, with Heather Morris byline and the Guardian has so far refused to take it down, even thought it has been informed that the writer of the obit used the obit as a marketing gimmick for her intended screenplay and movie in 2007 and it contains many in accurate things about Lali's life and several big fat white lies? YES IT SHOULD BE DELETED! IT WAS WRITTEN UNDER FALSE PRETENSES!

7. Should the New York Times Sunday Book Review look critically at its earlier glowing review of the novel in early 2018 when the book was first published and delete it from its archives since the novel has now been debunked and assign a new reviewer to write a new review or essay taking into account the critical news articlies about the book in the New York Times itself for its Sydney bureau in Australia, published online on Nove,ber 8, 2018 and also in The Australian newspaper and the UK Daily Mail  following shortly after the Times article on November? YES IT  SHOULD!

8. Should all publishers of future Holocaust novels do more pre-publication vetting and fact-checking before the book is printed and sold in bookstores and be very sensitive to the way they ''present'' the book on its cover and in promotional marketing PR material sent to newspapers, TV outlets and radio networks? YES!

9. Should those Australians and Americans who gave fake, glowing and breathless book blurbs for the novel when it launched in Australia and the US and the UK, including literary star Leah Kaminsky, TV star Hugh Riminton, New York writer Jenna Blum and others who were asked to send in a blurb by the publisher's PR team take back their earlier blurbs and write new ones to reflect the ongoing controvers swirling around the book now? YES THEY SHOULD! [What's a faked book blurb worth if is lies to the public about the book's true worth?]

10. Why has there been very little critical commentary about the book from the Jewish media in Australia,  the USA,  Canada or the UK? GOOD QUESTION!  Why haven't Jewish newspapers and online websites been more active in taking a good hard look at how the novel was put together, edited, published and marketed? ALSO GOOD QUESTION! How about it TABLET, FORWARD, JTA, Jewish Chronicle in London?

 

11. How did Heather Morris manage to pull the wool over everyone's eyes on this? ASK HER! And should she apologize publicly in a ''mea culpa'' op-ed in a major Australian newspaper? YES SHE SHOULD!