A letter of thanks from 74-year-old George Kovach in the USA to people around the world who have supported him in his fight against the fabrications in Heather Morris' Holocaust [''literary hoax''] "Cilka's Journey"

George Kovach

Dear literary friends around the world:

I want to thank you and all those who have stood with me on behalf of my stepmother Cecilia Klein/Kovachova, also known as Cilka.

Thanks to you, the exploitation of my stepmother’s tragic life – 3 years as a teenage Jewish girl in Auschwitz and
later 9 years in the Soviet Gulag – has been brought to public notice.

So far, the Guardian newspaper in the UK (October 3, 2019) and The Australian newspaper in Melbourne (October 6, 2019) have written about
my distress over the novel ''Cilka’s Journey.'' It looks like a top reporter at The New York Times will soon weigh in, too, with her detailed report.

My only concern is that, as P.T. Barnum once said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity!”

I would hate to think that through my efforts I would further tarnish my beloved stepmother’s character and increase sales of this novel in any way. 

The article in the Guardian by Alison Flood in London was well-written and thoughtful, but with a headline written by a Guardian copy editor using words from the article like

‘lurid and titillating’

the publishers at St. Martin’s Press are probably high-fiving each other.

However, I know Cilka would want me to get the truth out despite any unintended consequences.

I would only ask prospective readers who might order or purchase a copy of ''Cilka’s Journey'' to understand that each purchase encourages publishers to continue with what one Jewish pundit has called ''Holocaust fakery!''

The responsibility for this travesty of a book does not lie solely on the shoulders of Heather
Morris. Her publishers and editors in Melbourne and New York have a great deal to answer for. In their desperate pursuit of a ''sequel'' to the much-criticized (by Holocaust scholars and literary journalists) and very controversial ''The Tattooist of Auschwitz,'' also a ''Holocaust fakery'' fabrication cobbled together by a team of savvy Australian editors in 2017, they and Heather cobbled together, in just a year, a second ''novel'' -- dubbed a so-called sequel for marketing and PR purposes, and based in large part on information gleaned from undocumented or unverified personal memories, hearsay, books such as Anne Applebaum’s ''Gulag: A History'' and Sarah Helm’s ''Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women.''

Heather and her publishers declared
this fabrication on the cover of the new book to be (falsely) “based on a true story” and sat back waiting for the money to roll in.

And roll in it did.

If what Heather told me in a  conversation at my home earlier this year in Oakland when she visited me and my wife is true, St. Martin’s Press paid a $2,000,000
''advance'' for just the North American rights for ''Cilka’s Journey'' – without even reading the book, sight unseen!

They were
banking on the novel riding the wave of the lucrative financial success of ''The Tattooist of Auschwitz.''

The problem is that in doing so they continued with this new book to exploit and defame the character and memory
of my stepmother. They forced her to do things (in the narrative that Heather and her editors concocted) that she never would have done or even thought of
doing, such as being a sex slave to SS commanders or stealing drugs, etc.

I understand the need for an author of a novel to keep the story moving, to heighten drama, to create
mystery, to enhance characters.
But if you claim that your character is based on a real person, then you must always consider very
carefully what you make that person do.

You, the author, are the guardian of that real person’s reputation and memory.

Especially if that person was not a public figure.

Especially if there are people still alive who knew that person.

Especially if that person was a victim of the Nazi Holocaust and the Soviet Gulag.

I will continue my fight to absolve my stepmother from the bogus character Heather and her
editors and publishers have forced on her in both ''Tattooist'' and ''Cilka’s Journey.'' I intend to set up a blog and
examine in detail how ''Cilka’s Journey ''and ''The Tattooist of Auschwitz'' have very little foundation
in truth and exploit not only Cecilia Klein but the tragic victims of both the Holocaust and the
Gulag.

In the blog, I will tell the story of my personal experiences meeting with Heather Morris and communicating with her by email -- and her publishers -- and
present my criticisms based on logic and facts.

Stay tuned.

-- George Kovach, 74, San Francisco

[* Email available upon request from reporters and Holocaust historians around the world. Just ask this blogger's email contact at danbloom@gmail.com]