Auschwitz Museum in spat with author

► THE AUSCHWITZ Museum has become embroiled in a spat with the author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, after it told its 900,000 Twitter followers that the children’s novel “should be avoided by anyone who studies or teaches about the history of the Holocaust”.

The Irish author had criticised the number of recently-released books on Auschwitz, with titles such as The Saboteur of Auschwitz, The Mistress of Auschwitz

and The Librarian of Auschwitz.

“I can’t help but feel that by constantly using the same three words, & then inserting a noun, publishers & writers are effectively building a genre that sells well, when in reality the subject matter, & their titles, should be treated with a little more thought & consideration,” he tweeted on Sunday.

The Auschwitz Museum replied that it understood Mr Boyne’s concerns and had addressed inaccuracies in a number of works on Auschwitz — most noticeably in its criticism of Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

But it went on to urge members of the public to “avoid” Mr Boyne’s 2006 novel, which follows the story of a German youngster who befriends a Jewish boy through one of the camp’s fences and was adapted into a film in 2008, linking to an article which criticised the book.

In response, Mr Boyne said: “While I absolutely respect your right to recommend some books & to discourage the reading of others, it’s worth pointing out that the opening paragraph of the attached article contains 3 factual inaccuracies in only 57 words. Which is why I didn’t read on.”

One tweeter then replied: “John is now lecturing the Auschwitz Museum about Auschwitz.”

Mr Boyne called this “a completely inaccurate representation of what I said”.

He later told the Guardian: “The Auschwitz Museum was linking to an article... that addressed supposed inaccuracies in my novel which, of course, was a work of fiction … and therefore by its nature cannot contain inaccuracies, only anachronisms, and I don’t think there are any of those in there.”