Literary Fraud II

Since posting my blog yesterday I have received literally hundreds of visitors, mostly from France and Belgium, reading about the Misha Defonseca issue. I have thought a lot about this whole story and it is a difficult one to talk about because no one wants to believe that anyone would perpetrate such a hoax but, as the evidence that it is a hoax grows, the full range of outrages such a thing creates becomes increasingly painful.

There have been no shortage of literary hoaxes. Probably the most famous in recent years is James Frey's A Million Little Pieces which he originally wrote as fiction but then published as nonfiction. It was his appearance on Oprah, and her support of his story, that escalated the book to large scale attention. His book contained a lot of lies and exaggerations and, when those came to light, Oprah was justifiably angry about it. But did his book hurt anyone? Other than the embarrassment/hoodwink factor, probably not. If Misah Defonseca's book proves to be a hoax it is quite another matter.

First of all there is the lawsuit against her publisher, Jane Daniel and Mount Ivy Press. I won't go into the details of that case, you can read them on Daniel's blog BESTSELLER! But the hurt certainly doesn't stop there.

There is an authority on wolves and feral children in Europe, Serge Aroles, who wrote a book on the subject. In an article about Defonseca on his blog Loup.com (it is written in French) he states that when he wrote the book he considered the Misha story so preposterous that he didn't even consider it for the book. My French isn't that great but I was able to read enough to understand that he found so many of Misha's statements about life among the wolves to be so bizarre that he couldn't take her story seriously.

The premier of the movie based on her book has created a great many fans who adore the story and love Misha for writing it. Following a 2005 interview in La Mague: Le Journal Culture, many fans posted to support Misha and tell her how much they loved her and admired her for having the courage to tell her story. Her fans want to believe in the heroic little Jewish girl who crossed Europe on foot in search of her parents and lived among the wolves. If, in fact, Misha's story turns out to be a hoax, how will all those fans feel? Had the story been written as fiction they would still love and admire her for creating such a wonderful tale. But if it turns out to be a hoax a lot of them will be horrified.

Research lends credence to the possibility that Monique Ernestine DeWael (Misha's birth name) may well have lost her parents in the war. The man listed as her father on the baptismal certificate was arrested as a partisan and died in a death camp as did her mother. But so far there is no evidence that those people were Jewish. Defonseca has written that she was a "hidden child", a Jewish child given the identity of a child who died and whose death was never recorded. The Monique Ernestine De Wael on the Baptismal certificate, she claims, died prior to 1941 when Defonseca's parents were captured and taken away. But, even if that is true, we still have no answer as to who the child registered in a primary school in 1943 was, when Misha claims she was living with wolves in Poland.

We know that during the writing of her book, Defonseca was given a tremendous amount of support, both financial and emotional, by various Jewish groups her in Massachusetts. They believed her story and wanted to help her. Now, as more and more evidence points to the possibility of fraud, how are they to feel about this woman they embraced and supported?

But the most damning statement was made today in Regards, an online newsletter serving Belgium's Jewish community. Historian Maxime Steinberg says that, if Misha's story is a hoax it may be the biggest Holocaust fraud of the decade and, sadly, serves as one more tool for those who would deny that the Holocaust even happened.

So, while Misha's story, and the movie made about it, may be a lovely and inspiring tale, the opinion that it is built upon a fraud continues to grow.

Thanks for reading.