Bethany House’s Statement and Our Response

Yesterday, I posted Emily Hubbard’s eloquent letter to Bethany House regarding its decision to publish For Such a Time by Kate Breslin. The following is their response:

Hi Emily,

We appreciate you reaching out to us to express how you feel and what you thought. We certainly are always open to feedback.

Bethany House Publishers has been very saddened to learn of the offense some have taken at our April 2014 novel For Such a Time by Kate Breslin. We deeply respect and honor the Jewish faith, and this novel, inspired by the events and redemptive theme of the biblical book of Esther, was intended to draw on our common faith heritage.

Breslin reframes that Esther story in a Nazi transit camp during the Holocaust and portrays a courageous young Jewish woman who by God’s strength saved fellow Jews from death and in so doing awakened the conscience of a man thought by many to be beyond redemption. She wrote this deeply researched story with the greatest respect for the Jewish people and their history. It was neither Kate’s intent nor ours as publisher to cause any offense but rather to show through story how one person can choose to put the lives of others ahead of her own and help to shine God’s light into darkness.

After publication, For Such a Time immediately garnered strong positive reviews from readers in many markets. The book was a finalist for several literary awards including two in the Romance Writers of America RITA® awards for “best first book” and “inspirational romance” categories.

Bethany House Publishers will continue to support Kate Breslin and her writing. We have heard from many readers who have been moved by this honest portrayal of courage during a time of terrible evil, and we hope it continues to inspire and remind us to never forget the tragedy of the Holocaust.

Noelle Bruss

Well, that was disappointing. And upsetting. A slightly different version was posted on Bethany House’s website today, so this appears to be a generic statement that they plan to make in response to any criticism of this book they receive.

Fortunately, the statement is also fairly short, so we can respond to it point by point without writing the equivalent of War and Peace. Before we begin, the contributors to this discussion are myself and:

• Kelly of Insta-Love Book Reviews
• Sunita of ReaderWriterVille
• Emily Hubbard, who wrote the beautiful letter posted below
• Author Laura K, Curtis
• Janine Ballard of Dear Author

Bethany House Publishers has been very saddened to learn of the offense some have taken at our April 2014 novel For Such a Time by Kate Breslin.

Jackie: This is the epitome of a non-apology. “I’m sad my actions hurt you” is just never, ever an apology. Bethany House is placing its alleged “feelings” (hint: Bethany House is a business, not a person) ahead of the harm its action have done to actual people. I’m not sure how much more mealy-mouthed and vile this could be.

Kelly: I read that and had to close the browser tab. PR 101 “How not to apologize.”

Sunita: It’s worse than that. THEY have been saddened (made sad by) … the offense some have taken… We have made them sad! Bad us!

We deeply respect and honor the Jewish faith, and this novel, inspired by the events and redemptive theme of the biblical book of Esther, was intended to draw on our common faith heritage.

Jackie: A book that actively rewrites Jewish history cannot be said to respect or honor the Jewish faith. And no matter how much Bethany House may believe otherwise, it is not merely disrespectful but insensitive and insulting to reframe a fundamentally Jewish experience as a Christian redemption story. Yes, many non-Jewish people died in the Holocaust, but Jews died because of their unique combination of ethnicity. heritage, and faith, and mostly at the hands of those who claimed to be Christians. That truth should have given Bethany House pause. Instead, it apparently just sounded like an awesome idea.

Kelly: The theme of the story of Esther is not “redemption.” Did any of the dozens of theologians and Bible scholars you work with review the book?

Emily: My ESV study bible lists the themes for the Book of Esther: 1) Divine providence 2) human responsibility 3) the absurdity of wickedness

Sunita: Our common faith. That’s that pre-Christian but we share a Bible language, isn’t it. They intended to draw on the “common faith heritage.” So what they respect and honor is the common faith? Hard not to infer that.

Laura: “respect and honor the Jewish faith” It would have been nice, if you wanted to respect and honor the Jewish faith, if you depicted the Jewish faith. You did not. There is no indication that anyone who knows anything at all about Judaism beyond “hey, they don’t eat pork!” read this book.

Breslin reframes that Esther story in a Nazi transit camp during the Holocaust and portrays a courageous young Jewish woman who by God’s strength saved fellow Jews from death and in so doing awakened the conscience of a man thought by many to be beyond redemption.

Jackie: I’ve read the book; I don’t need the elevator pitch.

But this sentence also couldn’t more clearly illustrate exactly what is wrong with the book. It didn’t happen this way. There was no Nazi SS officer whose conscience was awakened by a courageous Jewish woman, thereby saving thousands of lives. It would be bad enough if Breslin had written this as an entirely fictionalized account, but she didn’t. She chose to change the course of history by replacing actual events and people with ones that suited her narrative purpose, thereby erasing the true tragedy that was Theresienstadt and, by extension, the entire Holocaust. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a form of Holocaust denial. No, it doesn’t deny the whole thing, but it denies a substantial portion of it.

Also, the fact that Breslin based her story on the Book of Esther does nothing to excuse or mitigate the harm.

Kelly: The story of Esther does not involve “awaken[ing] the conscience of a man thought by many to be beyond redemption.” It’s not about “salvation,” either.

Emily (again with my study bible on my lap): “Deliverance” is the closest word they use which is a bit different.

Sunita: Wait, this isn’t even what happens in the book. He came up with the plan. So maybe her love led him to that, but she was a fragile fainting flower until the train plot kicked in.

Laura: “who by God’s strength” I have a real issue with this line. Yes, both Christians and Jews read the Old Testament. But the God you are referring to in this letter is the New Testament God. God as in “God the father of our savior Jesus Christ,” not the God of the Jews. If you intended to show, as is it is shown in Esther, that Hadassah’s original faith was the key to rescuing (and notice that I say rescuing, not saving, despite Morty’s numerous uses of the word “salvation”) her people, you have failed utterly.

She wrote this deeply researched story with the greatest respect for the Jewish people and their history.

Jackie: If “deeply researched” means “checked the facts then ignored or changed the ones she didn’t like,” I guess that’s an accurate enough statement. Frankly, however, the host of small but hardly inconsequential historical gaffes in this book make it all but impossible to take any claim of “deep research” seriously. Here are just a few of them:

1. Dachau’s prisoners were not tattooed (Breslin does admit to making this change in the author’s note).
2. All noble titles were abolished in Austria after WWI. Aric would have been simply Aric Schmidt, not Aric von Schmidt.
3. The Nazis never wrote down the term “Final Solution.” A folder labeled as such is an impossibility.
4. Himmler selected SS officers based on their adherence to Nazi ideology. As portrayed in this novel, Aric would never have been in the SS, let alone “Himmler’s prize bull.”
5. “Lvov” was not a safe haven for Jews in June of 1944. Most of its Jewish community was murdered. (Added by Janine)

I could probably find more similarly jarring factual errors if I wanted to, but they pale in comparison to the whole stolen train/triumph of the Jews over the Germans in the “Battle of Susa”/humiliation of Himmler and Eichmann during the Red Cross visit ending. It’s clear from her author’s note that Breslin is well aware none of these things happened. How then could she feel that pretending they did was either good historical storycraft or (even more baffling) respectful of the Jewish people or their history? It’s one thing to take license with minor historical details and timelines. It’s another to entirely rewrite the end of World War II. And the ending of this story demands nothing less.

And whatever Breslin herself may have thought of what she was doing, the fact that Bethany House can continue to defend it as respectful and honorable when people of Jewish heritage are telling them otherwise is simply mind-bogglingly self-absorbed and blind. As my husband would say, these people have no inner dialogue.

Kelly: Where were the editors? Every single editor involved in this book should be fired. Immediately.

Also: It’s clear that the “extensive research” and “greatest respect” did not involve reading any primary sources written by Jewish historians or (God forbid) survivors, or any attempt to understand the Jewish view of “deliverance” or “heaven,” or you know, actually talking to a Jewish person. Maybe you were afraid of getting Jew cooties?

For future Holocaust books in the works: In the absence of any rabbis in the greater SeaTac or Twin Cities metropolitan areas, I would recommend a trip to the library. You don’t even have to go there – they have ebooks now! I’d recommend reading something by Chaim Potok. Or Elie Wiesel. Maybe you’ve heard of them? They’re very good writers. A quick jaunt to the Holocaust Museum would be another option. You can use my $10 to buy a memento yellow star at the gift shop.

I cannot stop the snark. It’s the only way my brain and heart and Christian soul can process this.

Laura: Kelly, in other editing news, there’s one unintentionally hilarious editing mistake in this book. At one of the feeding scenes, Stella says “I’m finished,” which made me think “I only wish you were!” A halfway decent copy editor would have changed that to “I have finished,” not only because that’s correct but because this is not supposed to be set in modern America.

Sunita: The other thing to note, in addition to the errors: When she did know the true story, she mostly changed it. So it’s not clear what the point of the research was. It’s not enough to do the research. The research needs to show up in the text.

Kelly: The research did show up in the text – as inconsistently formatted German and Yiddish words, frequent name-dropping of Himmler and Eichmann, and the comforting smells of Challah during Shabbat.

Laura: There’s no cultural research here, which is the most important thing to consider when you’re writing about a culture other than your own, which can only lead me to believe that you really don’t see the difference between the culture of a modern American Evangelical Christian and a 1940s European Jew. I don’t even know how to counteract that.

It was neither Kate’s intent nor ours as publisher to cause any offense but rather to show through story how one person can choose to put the lives of others ahead of her own and help to shine God’s light into darkness.

Janine: If it wasn’t Bethany House’s intention as a publisher to cause any offense, why use the anti-semitic term “Jewess” in the cover copy? Why co-opt the yellow Jewish star used to isolate Jewish people and mark them as Jews for the cover? Why use an actual photograph of Jews at Auschwitz, which records real people, some going to their deaths, on the cover of a book which has as its protagonist a Nazi concentration camp commandant?

Jackie: Did these people never hear that the road to hell is paved with good intentions? Listen up: intentions don’t matter. This book has caused genuine pain and harm to people. They are telling you this book is insulting and offensive. The fact that you didn’t “mean it to be” isn’t relevant. The only correct response here is “We are sorry for the offense and pain this book has caused to members of the Jewish and other communities. We realize we must take steps in the future to avoid making such grievous errors of judgment.”

By the way…this is a good spot for me to point out to Bethany House that if they truly respect their “shared faith heritage” with Judaism, they might consider having books like this vetted by actual Jewish readers and scholars. Had Breslin or Bethany House taken this one, simple step, this entire clusterfuck could have been prevented.

Kelly: “…how one person can choose to put the lives of others ahead of her own.” Pfft. The  puts Aric’s life ahead of her own. The Jews are just along for the ride.

Also: I’m offended. I’m very offended. And I’m Christian.

Emily: I was saddened by the book. Offended by the [non] apology. Christians should be the best at apologizing and repentance, and this statement was worse than no acknowledgment.

Sunita: Again with the intent. Intent is not execution. Author is not book. Author can have greatest intent in the world, but if it doesn’t translate to the finished product, the finished product is bad. We can grant them all the intent in the world. It doesn’t change the outcome.

Laura: Also, when your intent doesn’t match the outcome, you change the outcome. That’s how it works. If you intend to help your uncle move and you accidentally drop his television down the stairs, you buy him a new TV and get it delivered. You don’t say, “Well, my intentions were good.” You are in complete control of the outcome here, and since you choose not to fix it, I choose not to believe your stated intentions.

Janine: As one who lost relatives at Auschwitz, this non-apology “apology” in no way mitigates my feelings of anger and hurt. It only compounds them. I think Bethany House is speaking to its customer base in this statement, and not to those whom they have hurt and offended.

After publication, For Such a Time immediately garnered strong positive reviews from readers in many markets. The book was a finalist for several literary awards including two in the Romance Writers of America RITA® awards for “best first book” and “inspirational romance” categories.

Jackie: Yes, I know about the strong positive reviews, and I’m still scratching my head over them. I keep wondering what book they read. That said, positive reviews and award nominations do not make a book inoffensive. They do not eliminate the injury done to Jewish people, to the memory of those who died at Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, and even to the true courage of those Christians who actually did put themselves in danger to protect and save Jewish lives.

In all honesty, this statement brought tears to my eyes. They were just the wrong kind.

Emily: I’m feeling awkward and self-revealing to say this, but I can only wonder if Satan is actively at work blinding people’s eyes and hearts for them to think this book is good or even okay.

Kelly: As seen on Twitter: “I don’t think Jesus is very happy with y’all right now.”

The Birth of a Nation got a lot of publicity too. Go figure. Even Jerry Lewis had enough sense to ditch his Holocaust clown movie.

Sunita: Two Words. Dan Brown. People love his horrible books. And yes, we agree that it got good reviews in general market. And two RITA nominations. These are not validations of the book but black marks against those reviewers.

Jackie: And to be fair, the second RITA nomination was inevitable based on the first.

Laura: Lots of people believe we should ban books, burn books, etc. Does that mean you believe it, too? Seriously. I feel like I’m your mother going “if all your friends jumped off a bridge…” It wasn’t “Lots of markets.” It was one market. Your market. If you’re going to crow over a pathetic victory, at least be honest about what that victory was.

Janine: I feel compelled to point out that Time magazine chose Hitler as its 1938 “Man of the Year.” Since Time magazine was wrong, I’ll surmise that the readers, reviewers and contest judges who praised For Such a Time are wrong too. We don’t say, “Hitler had a lot of fans and therefore we stand behind him.”  Your statement, Bethany House, isn’t any more logical than that one.