Is/was there an actual fence angel named Earl Hutchins?
Executive summary
There is no evidence in the provided reporting that a “fence angel” named Earl Hutchins ever existed; the well-documented case that reporters and scholars discuss is Herman Rosenblat’s fabricated “angel at the fence” story about a girl (often named Roma) who allegedly passed food through a concentration-camp fence, a central premise later exposed as false and led to the memoir’s cancellation [1] [2] [3]. The sources supplied make clear that the narrative surrounding Rosenblat—not any person named Earl Hutchins—is the subject of fact-checking, publisher retraction, and scholarly critique [4] [5].
1. The story most sources actually investigate: Rosenblat’s “angel at the fence”
Multiple mainstream and archival sources trace a single, high-profile case in which Herman Rosenblat told of a young girl throwing him apples over the electrified fence at the Schlieben subcamp and later becoming his wife; his memoir Angel at the Fence was slated for publication and adaptation before historians and journalists raised serious doubts about the account [1] [2] [3].
2. How that account unraveled under scrutiny
Scholars including Deborah Lipstadt and Kenneth Waltzer questioned the physical and documentary plausibility of Rosenblat’s fence story—maps and camp records suggested civilians could not have approached the perimeter, and key chronological claims did not match documented liberation dates—prompting the publisher Berkley Books to cancel publication and demand returns of advance payments when new information emerged [5] [1] [2].
3. Consensus among fact-checkers and historians
Fact-checkers and hoax trackers concluded that the “angel” episode was fabricated or at best a conflation of memories and motifs; Snopes, The New York Times, The Guardian and specialist hoax archives summarize evidence that Rosenblat’s marriage and Holocaust survival were real but that the apple-over-the-fence romance was invented, and that publishers and producers had promoted an unverified anecdote for commercial and emotional appeal [4] [2] [3] [6].
4. What the supplied reporting does not support — and what it does not say
Nowhere in the provided sources is there mention of an individual named Earl Hutchins as a “fence angel”; the materials consistently reference Rosenblat’s narrative and his wife Roma (or Roma Radzicki) when discussing the fence episode [1] [3]. Because the current reporting does not address anyone named Earl Hutchins, it cannot be used to prove or disprove such a person’s existence; the honest conclusion from these sources is absence of evidence in the documented Rosenblat story, not affirmative evidence about an alternate name or figure [5] [4].
5. Motives, media dynamics, and the danger of unchecked narratives
The Rosenblat episode illustrates how emotionally compelling Holocaust anecdotes can be amplified by media and publishing industries without rigorous early fact-checking—Oprah’s platform and film interest helped propel the tale until historians intervened—highlighting commercial incentives and the human appetite for uplifting survival narratives, while scholars warn that such hoaxes ultimately harm collective memory and the credibility of survivor testimony [2] [1] [3].
6. Bottom line for the original question
Based on the provided reporting, there is no evidence that a “fence angel” named Earl Hutchins existed; the high-profile “angel at the fence” narrative tied to Herman Rosenblat was demonstrated to be fabricated in its central claim, and all cited sources discuss Rosenblat and his purported “angel” (Roma) rather than any Earl Hutchins—therefore the supplied record supports a finding of no documented Earl Hutchins in this context, while acknowledging that absence of mention is not exhaustive proof that no one by that name ever existed outside these reports [1] [2] [4].