George tells me long distance, via email on 10.10.2019
Hi Danny,
I am sending you a link to this article in the UK Daily Mail tabloid just in case you haven't seen it.
Also, I'm including my response to Heather Morris's publisher's statement in this article above.
See below.
From George Kovach in California, the stepson of Cilka (Cecilia Klein).
I thank the Daily Mail for publishing my objections to Heather Morris’s books, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey.
Let me now comment on Morris’s publisher’s response.
Morris asserts that her books are “based on the memories of survivors who knew Cilka at the time these events are described, in particular, Lali Sokolov.”
I challenge Morris to release the tapes where Lali Sokolov talks about my stepmother. If Morris just has her own recollections of what Sokolov said to her, then that is not even worth a grain of salt since she has been wrong about so much in telling her story.
Furthermore, Morris should identify any other witnesses by name and produce any documents she claims to have.
Morris and her publishers further state that they “chose to tell Cilka’s story because it highlights the sexual abuse that women suffered during World War II and its aftermath, abuse that has gone unacknowledged for too long.”
The abuse of women during World War II has been in the public domain for a long time.
This is a blatant attempt to jump on the #MeToo movement and thus deflect any criticism of her books.
Just because these terrible things happened doesn’t mean that my stepmother was forced to sleep with SS-Obersturmfuhrer Johann Schwarzhuber in Auschwitz.
Morris then doubles down on my poor stepmother in Cilka’s Journey and makes her the sex slave of SS-Rapportfuhrer Anton Taube as well!
As Memoria magazine (the online magazine dedicated to information about the Holocaust) stated about the relationship between Schwarzhuber and Cilka – “In practice, the possibility of maintaining such a long and, according to the book, semi-explicit relationship between a Jewish female prisoner and a high-ranking member of the SS hierarchy was non-existent. The disclosure of such a relationship would involve an accusation of race dishonor (Rassenschande) and severe punishment for the SS man.”
I challenge Heather Morris to a debate: Are Heather Morris’s novels The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey mostly fake or fact?
I thank the Daily Mail for publishing my objections to Heather Morris’s books, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey.
Let me now comment on Morris’s publisher’s response.
Morris asserts that her books are “based on the memories of survivors who knew Cilka at the time these events are described, in particular, Lali Sokolov.”
I challenge Morris to release the tapes where Lali Sokolov talks about my stepmother. If Morris just has her own recollections of what Sokolov said to her, then that is not even worth a grain of salt since she has been wrong about so much in telling her story.
Furthermore, Morris should identify any other witnesses by name and produce any documents she claims to have.
Morris and her publishers further state that they “chose to tell Cilka’s story because it highlights the sexual abuse that women suffered during World War II and its aftermath, abuse that has gone unacknowledged for too long.”
The abuse of women during World War II has been in the public domain for a long time.
This is a blatant attempt to jump on the #MeToo movement and thus deflect any criticism of her books.
Just because these terrible things happened doesn’t mean that my stepmother was forced to sleep with SS-Obersturmfuhrer Johann Schwarzhuber in Auschwitz.
Morris then doubles down on my poor stepmother in Cilka’s Journey and makes her the sex slave of SS-Rapportfuhrer Anton Taube as well!
As Memoria magazine (the online magazine dedicated to information about the Holocaust) stated about the relationship between Schwarzhuber and Cilka – “In practice, the possibility of maintaining such a long and, according to the book, semi-explicit relationship between a Jewish female prisoner and a high-ranking member of the SS hierarchy was non-existent. The disclosure of such a relationship would involve an accusation of race dishonor (Rassenschande) and severe punishment for the SS man.”
I challenge Heather Morris to a debate: Are Heather Morris’s novels The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey mostly fake or fact?
Signed,
George Kovach
POST-SCRIPT: A few corrections to this blogger's earlier blog posts about Mr Kovach and Heather Morris:
posted by Dan Bloom on October 7, 2019
PLEASE NOTE:
Mr Kovach lives in Oakland, not San Francisco.
Mr Kovach lives in Oakland, not San Francisco.
He never said that Heather Morris is a romance novel writer. He tells this blog: "I made this mistake because when I looked up Heather Morris on Amazon I was led to a site for a writer of the same name who happens to write romance novels. It was an honest mistake of mine. Heather did not write romance novels before these two novels."
RE: Dan Bloom's blog post stating that ... "although he says he tried to tell Morris the true story of his stepmother, he says she refused to listen to him and even threatened him with a lawsuit."
George Kovach told me: "That is false."
He added in an email to me: "I did not try to tell Morris the true story. I wanted to find out who she was first, and read both books before I participated.
She would not let me read the manuscript of Cilka's Journey.
The excerpts that she read to me, describing my father, were nothing like him.''
''I also then read Tattooist.
It was after that that I decided I could not participate in this project,'' he added.
''So, again, I did not try to tell Morris the true story of my stepmother (or father)," he emphasized in his email to me. This blogger Dan Bloom is happy to report these corrections based on mistakes I made in my reporting.
''She did not refuse to listen to me, because I never volunteered any information.
Indeed, she was eager to listen to anything I might have to say," Kovach told me.
''Heather never threatened me with a lawsuit," he added, noting:
''I had my lawyer send her publisher a letter expressing my objections to the book and the treatment of my stepmother.''
1 comment:
I've just read Cilka's Journey. I have nothing but respect and admiration for your stepmom. She did what she needed to do to live, when everyone around her in her circumstances were suffering and dying. There was more than enough death, and she chose life. Morris should have respected your wishes before this went to press. I don't know all the legalities, etc. But her legacy stands as you hold her in your heart.
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