Het is vreemd om naar een man te kijken die . Cilkas Journey : The sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz . Heather Morris chose to tell Cilkas 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 statement read. The number 200,000 is significant in the context, both scholars explain. The person who first discovered the scale of the distortion and is now arguing to have it recognized as Wikipedias longest hoax is an Israeli editor dubbed Icewhiz, who refuses to be identified by his real name but agreed to speak with Haaretz. 12:05 EST 08 Nov 2019. Prv probhaj skvl akce. But after hearing her read extracts, he told her publishers that the novel might infringe on his rights. Icewhiz, on the other hand, has failed to gain much support on Wikipedia. Thats why many of the local versions, especially those tied to languages spoken only in one country (like Hebrew or Polish) have a smaller pool of editors and therefore tend to reflect local national biases. Cecilia Kovachova is pictured above with her husband Ivan, whom she met while they were both prisoners at the Russian labour camp. Cilka worked in the gulag hospital, a safer job than the hard labour performed by most of the women outdoors. Cilka's Journey is a historical fiction novel and is based on the true story of Cecilia "Cilka" Klein who was first introduced to readers in Heather Morris' book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, the author said her character had caught the eye of a high-ranking Nazi officer and been made warden of a death block for women condemned to the gas chambers. Historical fiction, Scandal, The Guardian. Cecilie was the youngest of six children born to a religious Jewish family in the Czechoslovakian town of Yasinya. , updated The effort to rewrite Polish history on Wikipedia joins Holocaust distortion efforts by Polish think tanks picked up and echoed by nationalist media outlets that try to increase the estimate of the number of Poles who perished during the so-called Polocaust, a term that has gained popularity in recent years and is used to describe the mass murder of non-Jewish Poles at the hands of the Nazis. But that has nothing to do with this baseless story about 200,000 Poles being murdered in gas chambers a story that is sadly gaining traction today as part of a wider attempt in Poland to distort the history of the Holocaust.. When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is . Tim Stickings For Mailonline, Thousands of Russian troops wearing WW2-era uniforms parade through Red Square to honour Soviet soldiers who fought Nazis during the battle for Moscow, Mural near synagogue and a Jewish school is defaced with a swastika, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' Memorial says it found the story of Cilka, partly told in Heather Morriss original novel and set to be continued in Cilkas Journey, highly questionable. But our Second Gentlemen is lecturing us about 'toxic masculinity'. 07:17 EST 08 Nov 2019 The custodians of the Auschwitz concentration camp found numerous historical inaccuracies within her first book,The Tattooist of Auschwitz,but it still became an international best-seller, selling upwards of three million copies. He has now been withdrawn by his parents from the school. In 1942 cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is taken to auschwitz-birkenau concentration camp. Oh - how these liberal minds work! However, it was never proven and in fact, Trzcinskas work was never published by the body that employed her or the one that took its place after the fall of the communist regime: Polands Institute of National Remembrance, also known as the IPN. It was the characterisation of my stepmother in Tattooist as the sex slave of SS-Obersturmfhrer Schwarzhuber that appalled me. This group, he claims, is comprised of Polish expatriates who have embraced a nationalistic position that is far to the right of the Polish mainstream. Marches, demonstrations, public meetings and religious ceremonies were held, bogus maps circulated, false testimonies promoted, Wikipedia entries amended it is this line that first piqued Icewhizs interest and led him to look into the episode. I have written Lales story.. Cilka's Journey is based on interviews with Lale Sokolov (The . Heather Morris's novel "Cilka's Journey" is a fictionalized story of a real young woman, aged 16 when initially arrested, who endured unbelievable treatment in two of the worlds worst camps for nothing more than being a Jew. He argued that though he does not support the false narrative regarding the existence of a death camp at KL Warschau, he does not think it constitutes a hoax., In a detailed response to the claims presented in this story, Konieczny said that any errors that existed in Wikipedia on topics related to Poland and the Holocaust were minuscule and hardly widespread, and the result of the fact that this was a controversial topic on which there is some disagreement between academics. Kovach said he met Morris last April, when she asked him to contribute pictures and an afterword to Cilkas Journey. I am devastated. Moreover, they accused the Israeli editor of harassing them on Wikipedia, claiming he was driven by hatred of Poland and Poles. Cilka Klein was a real woman who endured not only Auschwitz but also the Russian gulag: two of the most brutal places of the 20 th century. By The Nazis spared their lives because they were twins. Cilka survived the Nazi death camp after senior officers took a liking to her, where she was regularly raped and witnessed the final hours of the sick and weak women destined to be murdered. There are other much more serious examples.. Cilka Klein witnessed death and violence as she was held in the concentration camp during World War Two. We are introduced to Cecilia 'Cilka' Klein in the No.1 Bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz (2018) where Lale Sokolov mentions her as the bravest person he ever met. There are people still alive who were friends of hers. To keep her on hand, he gave her a privileged job, as warden of a death block for women condemned to the gas chambers. Based on the heartbreaking true story of Cilka Klein, Cilka's Journey is a million copy international bestseller and the sequel to the No.1 bestselling phenomenon, The Tattooist of Auschwitz . As Alex is jailed for horrific executions of his wife and son rumors abound in the sleepy South Carolina town of Walterboro - and locals say 'most people don't believe he is the killer', Woman, 31, who had sex with 13-year-old boy and then became pregnant with his child will serve NO jail time in plea deal, 'Are y'all OK in LA?!' The memorial had previously identified Cilkas storyline as the major point of concern in December, saying: The sexual relationship described in the book between the head of the camp SS-Obersturmfhrer Johann Schwarzhuber and the Jewish female prisoner Cilka in practice, the possibility of maintaining such a long relationship and, according to the book, a semi-explicit relationship between a Jewish female prisoner and high-ranking member of the SS hierarchy was nonexistent. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. This so-called Eastern European Mailing List (EEML) scandal shook Wikipedia and earned bans for all those involved with it. Of course, in Cilkas Journey, she also makes Cecilia (Cilka) the sex slave of Anton Taube, another SS commander at Auschwitz.. By piggybacking on a real camp and inflating a real death toll, those peddling the KL Warschau conspiracy theory managed to pass Wikipedias first muster. Both Dreifuss and Grabowski say that they noticed the attempt to whitewash Wikipedia articles releated to Poland and the Holocaust in recent years. However, his own personal vendetta against them has lost him the upper hand. In the new novel Cilka's Journey, she is portrayed as teenage sex slave Cilka Klein, who was given a 'privileged' position by a besotted Nazi guard - leading the Russians to regard her as a collaborator. Fears emerge things will 'fall between cracks' in UFO . For example, he said that the issue of Holocaust rescue was under-researched by Jewish and Israeli scholars and institutes like Yad Vashem, which he compared to the IPN. According to Kovach, Morris subsequently removed his father, Ivan Kovach, from the book, replacing him with the character of Alexandr. According to Harari, Cecilia (Cilka) Klein, who died in 2004, was 16 when sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in World War II. These kinds of claims and calculations allow the Poles to say, not only you Jews were murdered with gas, explains Havi Dreifuss. The family owned a small grocery store, which Cecilie's mother managed. At that time she was already completing the novel about Cilka., Morriss UK publisher Bonnier Zaffre defended the novel: Cilkas Journey is a work of fiction, and it is based on the memories of survivors who knew Cilka at the time these events are described, in particular, Lale Sokolov, the Tattooist of Auschwitz, who regarded Cilka as the bravest person he had ever met.. After George Europe when Ivan was arrested by the Russians in 1948 they fled . The electronic spies lurking in our pockets are now justice's greatest tools, Alex Murdaugh is seen with his prison buzz cut as he starts two life sentences without parole for killing his wife Maggie and son: Judge says they will 'visit you in your sleep' - as his lawyers plan appeal in ten days, Is Murdaugh family behind three other mysterious deaths? Gerda Weissmann Klein (May 8, 1924 - April 3, 2022) was a Polish-born American writer and human rights activist. For many, his past efforts to defend Israels good name on Wikipedia is no different than the Polish editors attempt to defend Polands. She was eventually released in the 1950s, when Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev was trying to dismantle the former dictator's legacy. Cilka Klein, who was also at Auschwitz between 1942 and 1945. The same edit also indirectly denied the most notorious case of Polish violence against Jews the massacre at Jedwabne, also in July 1941. 'It stands to reason an element of that had to come from her experiences in Birkenau. The comments below have been moderated in advance. A female doctor, called Yelena in the book, protected her by training her as a nurse . Despite these claims, Wikipedia reveals that aided by the likes of other editors from the group, like Volunteer Marek, some members of the group are also active in downplaying Polish violence against Jews and in some cases have even accused the Jews of violence against Poles. Read more about Kovach and his stepmothers life in the Guardian. Kovachs father, Ivan Kovach, met Kovachova when they were prisoners in the Vorkuta gulag in northern Russia. Among Wikipedia entries in Polish that have been rewritten to pretend the Germans rather than Poles were responsible for mass murders of Jewish civilians, are the July 1941 pogroms at Radzilow (where Poles rounded up hundreds of their Jewish neighbors, barricaded them in a barn and set it on fire) and the Polish massacre of Jews at Jedwabne. The bravest person Cecilia, left, with husband Ivan, stepson George Kovach, his wife and child, in Budapest in 1984. The nature of this falsehood the fact that its a well-known conspiracy theory that was deliberately pushed out alongside the scope of its impact on other articles and their longevity within Wikipedia are what turn the extermination camp at KL Warschau into the longest-running hoax ever uncovered on the online encyclopedia. Most of the examples in this story are taken from Icewhizs increasingly quixotic battle against the group of Polish editors. Cilka's Journey was the first of Heather Morris' books that I read. Cilka's Journey is the million copy bestselling sequel to the phenomenon The Tattooist of Auschwitz.Don't miss the conclusion to The Tattooist of Auschwitz Trilogy, Three Sisters. A slew of false claims by Ukrainian and other east European nationalists still appear on Wikipedia. For example, a Twitter account allegedly set up by the Israeli to counter the distribution of revised Wikipedia articles online recently got him banned. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Bizarre moments in Alex Murdaugh double murder trial so far, Stolen car crashes into another car causing building to collapse, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles. The article was translated into a dozen languages, and false bits of information from it permeated other Wikipedia entries on related subjects, gaining over half a million views in English alone. A prisoner of the Vorkuta Gulag,, one of the major Soviet labor camps, Russia . He wrote that the fake Polocaust narrative in Warsaw was first developed in the 1970s by Maria Trzcinska, a communist judge. She was at Auschwitz for three years, which in and of itself is a feat of survival that is almost indescribable. Cecilia Klein with her husband in 50's / private archive Since the rise of the Polish Law and Justice partys right-wing government in Poland in 2005, this type of Polocaust revisionism has emerged from the shadows to become the law of the land. Though the historical truth is that Poles were behind the killing of more than 300 Jews, in Poeticbents falsified version, it was claimed that the Nazis used similar methods in Radzilow as they did Jedwabne an indirect denial of Polish complicity in both massacres. 'Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is,' it reads. . . Adam Bartosz of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments of Jewish Culture in Tarnow said he believes that this act of vandalism is associated with the current election campaign for the Polish national parliament. Cecilia had six siblings all in all. He and his mother escaped to the west, and he didnt see his father again until he was an adult, when he also met Kovachova and learned of her story. In an introduction to Cilkas Journey, Morris writes that the book is based on what I learnt from the first-hand testimony of Lale Sokolov from the testimony of others who knew [Kovachova], and from my own research. Everything that is related to negative treatment of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust is now being distorted and manipulated with the goal of promoting a false narrative and sowing confusion on English Wikipedia.. The publisher said Morris was a regular donor to many charities, and that conversations about making donations to the charities suggested by Kovach were ongoing and under consideration. Holocaust revisionism in Wikipedia deserves to be studied in its own right. For example, though the article was translated into 12 languages, it never made its way into Hebrew, where the camp is only noted in passing as part the article for the Warsaw Ghetto. George Kovach, the closest known relative of Cecilia (Cilka) Klein, has . A reader that is not well versed in history could think that it was a joint struggle by four equally important organizations - two Polish groups and two Jewish ones. The only editor to respond to a request for comment was Pitorus, whose real name is Piotr Konieczny. As Sokolov began his life as a free man following the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945, Cilka was being branded a collaborator and transported by cattle truck to Vorkuta, a gulag deep inside the Arctic Circle. Readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz would remember another character, Cilka Klein, who was only 16 when she entered Auschwitz, saving Lale's life. A clear manifestation of this change has been the new IPNs reluctance to support its own findings and officially disown Trzcinskas claims, which has created more footnote fodder for those spreading her narrative on Wikipedia. The vents were actually installed in the 1970s. That book has already drawn stinging condemnation from the Auschwitz Memorial, which said in a detailed report earlier this year that the book contains numerous errors and information inconsistent with the facts, as well as exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements. It has nothing to do with the Cecilia that he knew, or her history as she recounted it to him, says the letter, which goes on to list two of the most egregious errors in the book: the false and patently absurd storyline that Cilka is presented as being the mistress of not one but two high-ranking SS camp commanders, and that Cilka allegedly steals drugs from the Vorkuta camp hospital (supposedly to protect her reputation). In the book, Morris mentioned that Klein had been liberated by Russian forces and sentenced to multiple years in a forced labour camp for sleeping with the enemy but a letterto the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany contradicted this information. Per Wikipedias rules, the fact that he allegedly took to Twitter to fight the Polish editors is akin to what was done by those who were implicated in the EEML scandal. What I would like is for them [Heather Morris and St Martins Press] to publicise that this work is 99% fiction and to apologise for the treatment of my stepmother, he said. The Guardian For example, in the Radzilow article, Volunteer Marek defended the claim that Jewish militiamen helped to send Polish families into exile.. The arms of Jenny Choleva (top) and Marnie Pettle (49560) Her bubbe, now 94, is still proud. In this follow-up to the widely read The Tattooist of Auschwitz (2018), a young concentration camp survivor is sentenced to 15 years' hard labor in a Russian gulag.. In Morris' sequel to her bestselling first novel, titled Cilka's Journey, she focused on Cecelia Klein, and Kovach found the portrayal of his Jewish stepmother highly objectionable. In 1942 Cilka Klein is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her husband broke his promise in the 1960s, when he started to talk to journalists, but the couple accommodated the change. Written by Heather Morris Review by Katie Stine. The first version of Warsaw concentration camp said the site was home to death camps where Warsaws Gentile population was exterminated, and before the article was partially rewritten this past May, it was called an extermination camp in the opening lines. Play it now! While historical arguments can be decided by historians, questions regarding Wikipedia have no clear arbitrator. In the book, Ivan is replaced by the character of Alexandr with whom she similarly falls in love while in Soviet hands. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides - A woman shoots her husband and then never speaks another word. Some of the well known facts from the life of Cilka Klein have to be mentioned here and we should consider whether an author is actually entitled to write a person's biography without knowing their true story. This gulag hospital had very few drugs for its prisoner patients. . Thats why they are flocking in a frenzy to Wikipedia and dedicating so much time and energy to it. Cilka's Journey . . New Zealand born Morris uses the fictional character of Cilka Klein to portray Cecilia's miraculous survival, vividly portraying her as the sex slave of two SS commanders in Auschwitz. Auschwitz survivor Cecilia Kovachova and her husband Ivan, who met in a Soviet gulag, after their release in 1957. Both Pettle, a 40-year-old Toronto woodworker, and Jenny Choleva, a Warsaw-born survivor of Auschwitz, bear the number 49560 on their forearms, only Pettle's has the added words "never forget" in Yiddish. At the very least, he is urging her publisher St Martins Press to make more clear that the work does not represent what actually happened and to urge readers to read Primo Levi and actual accounts of Auschwitz. Do not sell or share my personal information, Morris' publication defended the book saying it highlights sexual abuse in WWII. The sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, itself at the center of some controversy, has stirred up plenty of outrage as well. However, the real-life Kovachova's stepson George Kovach recently criticised the novel and said she would have been 'devastated' by it. Once the Red Army arrived in 1945 in the invasion which crushed Hitler's Germany, she was seen as a collaborator and taken to Siberia by cattle truck. Since the rise of the Polish Law and Justice partys right-wing government in Poland in 2005, this type of Polocaust revisionism has emerged from the shadows to become the law of the land, notes the Israeli paper Haaretz. And while this new Polish narrative has failed to make headway in academia or the world media, on Wikipedia it has thrived. The site where the camp stood is an object of pilgrimage for some in Poland, who hold periodic ceremonies on what they believe is hallowed ground. The first time was in 2006, as part of what can only be termed a Polish cleansing of the text. Kovach has described the portrait of his stepmother as appalling and extremely hurtful in a letter from his lawyers to Morriss American publishers. At that time she was already completing the novel about Cilka., Morriss UK publisher Bonnier Zaffre defended the novel: Cilkas Journey is a work of fiction, and it is based on the memories of survivors who knew Cilka at the time these events are described, in particular, Lale Sokolov, the Tattooist of Auschwitz, who regarded Cilka as the bravest person he had ever met.. One explanation is that though there was no death camp in Warsaw called KL Warschau, there was certainly a concentration camp with that name. The sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, itself at the center of some controversy, has stirred up plenty of outrage as well.. She told another fan: You wont find anything on Google, it has taken professional researchers for me to get the details and information required to write her story, she was a closed book so to speak., A spokesperson for Bonnier Zaffre, Morriss publisher in the UK, said: Like The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilkas Journey is a novel. In an introduction to Cilkas Journey, Morris writes that the book is based on what I learnt from the first-hand testimony of Lale Sokolov from the testimony of others who knew [Kovachova], and from my own research. Incredible moment two Jewish cousins who were separated as Busts of Adolf Hitler, head measuring tools and swastika Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Beaming Harry and Meghan enjoy date night at private members' club, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' In addition to adding the inflated Warsaw death toll, the editor also deleted a line explaining that, the primary intention of these camps was the extermination of the Jews. The revision highlights how the attempt to push out the false narrative regarding KL Warschau goes hand in hand with attempts to minimize the Jewish Holocaust and exaggerate the so-called Polocaust. How is it possible that editors embroiled in such a severe breach of Wikipedias rules are back to editing? Cecilia was predeceased by her parents: Charlie and Emelia Runge; her husband, Andrew; her siblings and family: Andrew and Caroline Runge, Charlie and Hilda Runge, Max and Kate Muhr, Ernie and Julia Runge . A hit book around the world, The Tattooist of Auschwitz tells the story of the Slovakian Jew Lali Sokolov, and how he fell in love with a woman he tattooed at the camp. This attempt to revise the accepted history of the Shoah on the internet encyclopedia parrots the revised historical narrative currently being trumpeted by the Polish government. In the beginning of 1990s, a new narrative was being pushed out by nationalists that there was an extermination camp in Warsaw and that there were gas chambers there. She was a minor character in the first book. I can't ask her, no one can now, but her behaviour indicates it. Other Holocaust historians share her unequivocal position: Its a conspiracy theory, says Prof. Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian historian from the University of Ottawa, when asked about the legend behind the death toll. Adding another 200,000 (fictitious) Polish deaths would raise the Polish death toll in the city to 400,000 almost identical to the number of Jews who were murdered in the ghetto. Australian author Heather Morrisis under fire for allegedly misinterpreting the experiences of a Holocaust survivor in her latest book. After liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Cilka Klein is charged as a collaborator by the Russians and sent to a desolate, brutal prison camp in Siberia known as Vorkuta, inside the Arctic Circle. Cilka's Journey continues the story of Cilka, a prisoner featured in The Tattooist of Auschwitz.The character was based on Cecilia Klein, who, according to Morris, served as the "sex slave . Cilka Klein endured ten years of horrendous conditions and sexual abuse during her time at Auschwitz Credit: Getty - Contributor. Cilla with her husband Ivan Kovac in 2003, the year before she died . However, Morris is clear that Lale Sokolov and other survivors from Auschwitz-Birkenau spoke of the relationship between Cilka and Schwarzhuber. Three years later, Zygmunt Walkowski, a specialist on wartime Warsaw who works with photographic and video evidence, was also appointed by the IPN to look into Trzcinskas claims. One particular area of concern for the Memorial was a character in the novel called Cilka Klein, . The truth is that there was no systematized mass murder of the Polish population - and that is of course a good thing. Pictured is Cilka with her husband Ivan, stepson George Kovach and his wife and child . But responding to the announcement of the new book on Thursday, the Auschwitz Memorial said that the story of Cilka was one of the most questionable parts of the novel. October 4, 2019. One particular area of concern for the Memorial was a character in the novel called Cilka Klein, who has a sexual relationship with the head of the camp SS-Obersturmfhrer Johann Schwarzhuber something the Memorial said the possibility of was non-existent. Kovach told the Times of Israel that his father was arrested in Czechoslovakia in 1948. This line attempts to shift the light away from a growing body of research into cases of Polish cooperation and collaboration with the Nazis in the persecution of Jews. By 2010, half were back to editing and they form the core of the Polish group at the heart of Icewhizs claims. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, Kellyanne Conway and husband George SPLIT after 22 years following admission in her 2022 memoir that her husband's criticism of Trump was a betrayal, Where IS Gavin? For many years, the Wikipedia article for the camp claimed that between 1942 and 1944, there were about 400 victim roundups in Warsaw daily, with the detainees first being transferred to KL Warschau. The number 400 was based on a single uncorroborated eyewitness quoted by Trzcinska, but was used by Polocaust proponents on Wikipedia as part of a speculative calculation: 400 deaths a day times the number of days the camp was in operation, amounts to well over 200,000 dead. Yet both claims appeared, almost without interruption, for 15 years on the English-language version of Wikipedia in what is said to be Wikipedias longest-standing hoax. A 16-year-old's innocence was cruelly ripped from her when she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. 'When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. For example, claims, attributed to eyewitnesses, that canisters of Zyklon B poison gas were found at the site, or that bodies were carried out of the tunnel, were found to be full of holes. More concerning, this lie fed into other articles: For example, the entry on Nazi concentration camps claimed that up to 200,000 died in Warsaw, with the original article on the camp serving as its internal reference, showing how disinformation can spread inside Wikipedia. Se salv de morir de hambre, enfermedad o en las cmaras de gas, pero, tras la liberacin, fue acusada de colaboradora y espa ante la NKVD . This is a novel based around real people and events, as are many other works of fiction.. KLEIN. 'The haters have won': Isaiah Washington - who was fired from Grey's Anatomy for gay slur - announces early retirement from acting in lengthy Twitter rant, 'Don't go into the mountains! Only shame stopped women like her talking about what had been done to them. One of the revisionists bitterest enemies on this point is Jan Grabowski, whose research has focused on the hunt for Jews by local Poles during the later stage of the Nazi occupation. The stepson of a Slovakian woman who survived Auschwitz, only to be sent to a Soviet gulag, has branded the novelist Heather Morriss lurid and titillating version of his stepmothers story appalling and extremely hurtful.