Authentic?

[Novall]

Has anyone checked the information in this book with a timeline of WW II events? Any insight here is welcome.

There is suspicion that this author and public speaker, Gunther Skaletz, may be a phony and his story a hoax. He may simply have created a plausible story to make money.
http://www.wsau.com/news/articles/201...

[Rich]

Have you checked out the timelines before making accusations? I know Mr Skaletz personally and know he would never "create a plausible story to make money" as you put it.

[Novall]

Rich wrote: "Have you checked out the timelines before making accusations?"

Have you FACT-CHECKED the tall tale of Skaletz?

Forrest Gunther Gump endures WW II (1939-1945).

Forrest Gunther Gump survives the Holocaust in his native Poland (1940-1943).

Forrest Gunther Gump escapes the Auschwitz extermination camp (1943-1944).

Forrest Gunther Gump serves in the German army (1944-45).

Forrest Gunther Gump outsmarts the KGB (1949-1951).

Forrest Gunther Gump escapes from Siberia (1951-1952).

Forrest Gunther Gump outwits the Cold War spy network in Berlin (1958-1960).

Forrest Gunther Gump works in the White House (1961-1969) and becomes kitchen chef for President Lyndon Johnson.

Forrest Gunther Gump nominates himself to motivational public speaker (1995-2024).

Reality:
A semi-literate fraud attempts to elevate himself to the status of a celebrity.

His faux inspirational "Never stop trying" should read "Never stop LYING."

The author's grade school-level writing style is deplorable.
There is a litany of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors in both English and German.

The entire book desperately needs proofreading and editing.
No legitimate publisher would even consider printing such trash.

The account is NOT from an eyewitness, rather simply a fabricated tale from a disturbed and disturbing person.

Are there undiagnosed psychological issues with the author of this nauseating morass?

The title itself defines the dreadful nature of the book.
The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. By his own account, author Gunther Skaletz was already in the US at that time. He was never on Both Sides of the Wall!

Fact Check exposes Fraud:

1) There is no record of Mr. Skaletz in the Shoah Foundation database of Holocaust survivors.

2) The Jewish Claims Conference, New York, has no record of Gunther Skaletz as a Holocaust survivor: 1-646-536-9100

3) There is no record of any Holocaust survivor or victim named Gunther Skaletz in the Yad Vashem Archive, Jerusalem.

4) Skaletz cites he was in Auschwitz, yet the database of inmates at Auschwitz has no Gunther Skaletz.

5) Skaletz has no ID number tattoo on his left arm from Auschwitz.

6) There is no record of Gunther Skaletz in the extensive Holocaust archive, Bad Arolsen, Germany.

7) The German military archives in Freiburg and Berlin have no record of Gunther Skaletz serving in the German army from April 1944 to April 1945:

8) The German Agency of the Federal Commissioner for the Records from the former East German State Secret Police (Stasi), has no record of any Gunther Skaletz in East Berlin. There is no record of Skaletz living anywhere at any time in East Germany (GDR).

9) There is no reference to Gunther Skaletz in the Lyndon Johnson presidential library, Austin, Texas. The complete lack of any reference to a chef or an employee "Gunther Skaletz" exposes the lie that he worked for LBJ.

The well-organized archival material there includes White House Central File, Name File, White House Social Files, Office Files of Macy.

10) May 2010 Skaletz was exposed as a fraud by the Marshfield News Herald, Wisconsin.

11) Gunther's younger sister Anna G., Berlin, Germany, refutes his presentation as a complete fiction.

12) Gunther's daughter Anne H., Missouri, renounces his story:\

13) Circa 2013, Skaletz fled his home in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and now resides in Lake Ozark, Missouri, where he still parades his pompous person to the gullible public.

14) One YouTube interview may reflect the nature of mental health issues with Skaletz. BDS Productions, Chapman, Kansas.

The bizarre body language with lack of eye contact displayed here may indicate an undiagnosed neurological impasse.

15) Mr. Skaletz would do well to read legitimate accounts from child Holocaust survivors.
Ragdolls by the late Henry Golde
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...?

The Boys by historian Martin Gilbert
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...?

However, with his present example of plausible mental health issues, Skaletz may simply add these histories to the bizarre account of his own fabricated biography.

16) Two plagiarized sources of information for Skaletz's vomited fiction are I Escaped from Auschwitz and As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Escape from a Siberian Labour Camp and His 3-Year Trek to Freedom.