The power behind the legend

The Australian Jewish News

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Australia, Saturday, November 6, 2004 

NATIONAL

Holocaust ‘memoir’ withdrawn

by Melissa Singer

A HOLOCAUST-THEMED autobiography was withdrawn from sale this week following revelations questioning its authenticity.

Stolen Soul by Bernard Holstein — who lives in Perth [Western Australia] and claimed he was a Holocaust survivor — was removed from bookshelves across Australia earlier this week after the publisher uncovered evidence which challenges the author’s credibility, including claims he spent time in Auschwitz.

Publisher Judy Shorrock, who edits the Perth Maccabean, told the AJN she was still “shocked” by the revelations and fears the incident may incite Holocaust denial.

“I’ve spent three years working on this book. I am devastated… that it could damage the credibility of the Holocaust — that just makes me feel sick,” she said.

The book was pulled from shelves earlier this week by the distributor, University of WA Press, after evidence uncovered by a private investigator — hired at Shorrock’s own expense — refutes Holstein’s claims that he spent time in the Nazi concentration camp.

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 Bernard Holstein, Auschwitz ‘survivor’, complete with ‘tattoo’, published bestselling memoirs, but Australia says he is Bernard Brougham, another Benjamin Wilkormiski, and a fake

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