Misha Defonseca

Misha Defonseca
Born
Monique de Wael

(1937-05-12) 12 May 1937 (age 87)
Etterbeek, Belgium
Occupation(s)Novelist, writer
Known forWriting a fraudulent Holocaust memoir
SpouseMaurice Defonseca

Misha Defonseca (born Monique de Wael) is a Belgian-born impostor and the author of a fraudulent Holocaust memoir titled Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, first published in 1997 and at that time professed to be a true memoir. It became an instant success in Europe and was translated into 18 languages.[1] The French version of the book[2] was a derivative work based on the original with the title Survivre avec les loups (Surviving with Wolves) that was published in 1997 by the Éditions Robert Laffont; this second version was adapted into the French film of the same name in 2007.[3]

On 29 February 2008, the author as well as her lawyers admitted that the bestselling book was fraudulent, despite its having been presented as autobiographical.[4] In 2014 a US court ordered Defonseca to repay her US publisher Mt. Ivy Press $22 million that she had been awarded in an earlier legal suit against the publisher.[5][6]

  1. ^ Mehegan, David (1 March 2008). "Faked Holocaust memoir: Den of lies". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 1 March 2008.
  2. ^ In her blog, Jane Daniel explains the differences between the original English (Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years) and the French edition.
  3. ^ Belmont, Véra (21 November 2007), Survivre avec les loups (Drama), Mathilde Goffart, Yaël Abecassis, Guy Bedos, Stéphan Films, Les Aventuriers de l'Image, XO Productions, retrieved 30 October 2023
  4. ^ Waterfield, Bruno (1 March 2008). "'Wolf woman' invents Holocaust survival tale". The Telegraph. Archived from the original (Internet Archive) on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2008.
  5. ^ "Yet Another Writer Has Admitted Faking Her Holocaust Memoir: The long, strange history of made-up Shoah stories".
  6. ^ Flood, Alison (12 May 2014). "Author of fake Holocaust memoir ordered to return $22.5m to publisher". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 September 2023.