Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years
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| Author | Misha Defonseca (Monique de Wael) |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | World War II, The Holocaust, Fiction |
| Publisher | Mt. Ivy Press |
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Publication date
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1997 |
| ISBN | |
Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years is a literary hoax by Misha Defonseca, first published in 1997. The book was fraudulently published as a memoir telling the supposed true story of how the author survived The Holocaust as a young Jewish girl, wandering Europe searching for her deported parents. The book sold well in several countries and was made into a movie, Survivre avec les loups (Surviving with the Wolves), named after the claim that Misha was adopted by a pack of wolves during her journey who protected her.
However, in February 2008, Defonseca publicly admitted what many had already suspected, that her book was false. Her real name was Monique de Wael; while her parents were in fact taken away by the Nazis, they were not Jews but Roman Catholic members of the Belgian Resistance, and she did not leave her home during the war, as the book claims. In a statement released through her lawyers to the Brussels newspaper Le Soir, de Wael attempted to defend the hoax, claiming that the story of "Misha" "is not actual reality, but was my reality, my way of surviving" and that there were moments when she "found it difficult to differentiate between what was real and what was part of my imagination."
It is difficult to be sure of de Wael's true history, since it was obscured for so long behind the falsehood she told. However, at least a fragmentary version can be put together from documentation turned up by researchers and from de Wael's own admissions.
Monique de Wael was born in 1937 in Etterbeek, Belgium, to Robert De Wael and Josephine Donvil. The exact date is given differently by different sources: May 12 (according to a baptismal record) or September 2 (according to records from the school Monique attended in the year 1943-44.) Her family was Catholic, and her parents were members of the Belgian resistance, which led to them being arrested by the Nazis on September 23, 1941. Nazi records indicate that Robert de Wael was executed on May 3 or 4 of 1944, and Donvil died sometime between February 1 and December 31 of 1945.
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