A Memoir of the Holocaust or A Literary Fraud?

I have written here in past blogs about the story of Misha DeFonseca, the woman who wrote Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust which has recently been made into a French film titled Survivre avec les loupes. The original book was published in the United States by Mt. Ivy Press and became the subject of one of the most astonishing judgements against an independent publisher in New England history --- $33 million against a small press for engaging in "deceptive business practices". The "deceptive practices " were that the publisher claimed she could make the book a best seller. As I've said before, EVERY publisher tells their authors that --- and every author wants to believe it.

For 10 years this case has spawned lawsuit after lawsuit. In August 2007, Jane Daniel, the owner of Mt. Ivy Press and the woman who has lost virtually everything she owns in the this mess, began a blog BESTSELLER! The Book at bestsellerthebook.blogspot.com. In the prologue to the story she said that she hoped that the blog would serve as a stimulus for others to come forward with any information they had about DeFonseca. Now, it would seem, someone has.

A geneologist with contacts in Europe has supplied Daniel with some interesting documents that she posted to her blog this morning. The first is a Baptismal certificate issued in 1937 at St Gertrude's Parish, Etterbeek, Belgium for one Monique Ernestine Josephine De Wael:
This is accompanied by photographs of the young Monique Ernestine DeWael that were published in the American version of the book. DeFonseca claims she was 7 years old when these were taken shortly before she set out on foot to walk across Europe to find her parents, victims of Hitler's Holocaust. If one believes the Baptismal certificate, DeFonseca would, in fact be 4, in these photos. If I am any judge of children she looks a lot more like a four year old than a seven year old.
The question is, does the child in the photo above look capable of setting out on a trek on foot across Europe with only the aid of a tiny compass her grandfather taught her to use?

But more interesting than the Baptismal certificate and the photos, is a school record:

1943 Primary School No 2 Register, rue Gallait 18:
Six years later, in the same neighborhood where her parents lived when
she was born, Monique De Wael, daughter of Robert De Wael, employee of
the Schaerbeek town administration and Marguerite Levy begins school.
Marguerite is the younger sister of Monique's first husband Morris Levy,
who's father was also named Morris Levy, occupation film distributor,
wife's name Germaine Reps.

The caption states that not only was Monique De Wael a student in a primary school in 1943 when she claimed to be living among wolves in the Ukraine, but one of her classmates was the sister of her future husband.

What does all this mean? Well, we can only speculate at this point but it certainly raises a lot of questions. The main one being if Misha DeFonseca was trekking across Europe with a pack of wolves in 1943 in search of her Jewish parents, who was the little Catholic girl with her name in a primary school in Belgium at that time and who would later marry the very same man Misha married and who is the father of her son?

When Judge Elizabeth Fahey tripled the judgement against Jane Daniel and Mount Ivy Press she accused her of misrepresenting her publishing company's ability to promote Misha's story. In Daniel's blog she writes about the difficulties she encountered in promoting that book because DeFonseca was uncooperative about the promotion, including throwing up roadblock after roadblock about appearing on the Oprah show (what writer in her right mind blows going on Oprah?) Now, with these new documents that have come to light it makes one wonder... What was it that DeFonseca was really trying to block? Everyone loves DeFonseca's story. We all want to believe that a heroic little Jewish girl would be capable of doing what she says she did and all the animal lovers in the world are in love with the story about her life among the wolves. It is a fairy tale we can all love.

But what if it is a fraud? What if she concocted the story and that deception resulted in the loss of millions of dollars to the woman who published her book? What if it destroyed her reputation and put her through years and years of legal nightmares? Is it possible that there was far more deception going on than Judge Fahey ever dreamed of?

Visit the Bestseller! Blog, read and draw your own conclusions.

Thanks for reading.