Holocaust "Surviver" Admits Story is a Fraud.

A woman's best-selling account of how she lost her parents to the Holocaust and survived by living with wolves in the forests of Europe has been exposed as a fabrication.



"Surviving with Wolves", first published 11 years ago, has been translated into 18 languages and was recently turned into a film.

But in a statement issued by her lawyers, Misha Defonseca, who was born Monique De Wael, confessed that while her parents, members of Belgium's resistance, were killed by the Nazis her family was not Jewish and most of the events of the book were made up.

"Ever since I can remember, I felt Jewish," she said. "There are times when I find it difficult to differentiate between reality and my inner world. The story in the book is mine. It is not the actual reality - it was my reality, my way of surviving."

"At first, I did not want to publish it, but then I was convinced. I ask for forgiveness for all those who feel betrayed but I ask them to put themselves in the place of a small girl of four years old who has lost everything and who has to survive."

In her book, Mrs Defonseca describes being taken in by the De Wael family as a young girl.


"She was given a new name, a new home, and forced into a new religion," claims publicity for her book.

Knowing only that her parents had "gone East", the young Misha sets out to find them equipped only with a tiny compass.

After crossing Belgium, Germany and Poland alone on foot, close to starvation in a vast forest, she was adopted by a family of wolves.

Mrs Defonseca's book became a runaway bestseller after its publication in Italy and France and has made her a millionaire.

But suspicions were aroused in Belgium's Jewish community and some of her old school friends from the Anderlecht district of Brussels recognised her.

They insisted that she was born and raised a Catholic by the De Wael family and lived with her grandfather after her parents were deported.

"She belonged to a very good family and lived in the most beautiful house on the street," one former friend told La Meuse newspaper.

"Monique was always 'special'. She wanted to be the 'star' where ever she went."

Despite growing evidence in recent weeks of inconsistencies in her story, including a birth certificate showing she was not Jewish, Mrs Donfonseca insisted she was telling the truth until she released her statement.

At the film's premiere in France last month she even turned up with a little compass, "my most precious talisman", which she said had helped her find her way on her journey east through the forests of occupied Europe.

Vera Belmont, the director of the French film "Survivre avec les Loups" has taken the revelations well.

Her spokeswoman said: "The movie is a fiction from the book. No matter if it's true or not - she believes it is, anyway - she just thinks it's a beautiful story."

Jane Daniel, the publisher Mrs Defonseca claims persuaded her to write the book, is less forgiving after being sued by the author in a breach of contract case for £11 million.

She now intends to challenge the judgment on the grounds that Mrs Defonseca's original contract had warranted the truth of the story.

Another Hate-Crime Hoax. Jew Behind Anti-Jewish Vandalism

Weapons Trove Suspect Is Linked to Hate Crimes
By FERNANDA SANTOS & KAREEM FAHIM
The New York Times Tuesday, 22 January 2008

NEW YORK — It all happened in less than three hours on a cool
September night — a prolific spurt of anti-Jewish vandalism at
more than a dozen locations in the heart of Brooklyn Heights.

On Monday, the police caught a break, arresting a man who they
said had a trove of weapons inside a stately apartment building
in the neighborhood. The man, Ivaylo Ivanov, admitted under
videotaped questioning that he was behind the spree, which had
mystified investigators for months, the police said.

And later Monday evening, after Mr. Ivanov’s arraignment in
Brooklyn Criminal Court, his lawyer surprised reporters with his
own announcement: Mr. Ivanov is himself Jewish.

The revelation was the latest twist in a bizarre story that features
a man who, police said, shot his own finger; a sizable weapons
collection, including pipe bombs and a sawed-off shotgun, found
in an apartment in one of Brooklyn’s most exclusive neighborhoods;
and a prominent HIV/AIDS researcher and medical anthropologist,
who owns the apartment.

The hate crimes had unsettled local residents, many of whom awoke
on the morning of Sept. 25 to find Swastikas and other slurs scratched,
scrawled and spray-painted on cars, playgrounds, synagogues and
building facades. Crude fliers reading “Kill All Jews” were strewn about.

Another ‘hate crime’ hoax

ODENTON, Md. -- An Anne Arundel County woman said she woke up to an upsetting sight last weekend -- racial and sexual slurs written all over the outside of her house.

Virginia Trotter lives in the 2000 block of Brigadier Boulevard in Odenton. She said that last Sunday, her neighbors told her that there was offensive writing all over her house.

"This is awful. It's terrible," she said. "I didn’t think I had neighbors in the area that would do such a thing."
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Trotter said that she has lived at the home for 17 years and said she'd never had problems before.

Sexual images and racial slurs were written all over her home. But police said the incident is not being investigated as a hate crime because both the victim and the alleged suspects are black.

A female witness told police that she saw four black teens fleeing the scene. Police said they believe neighborhood rivalries were the reason behind it and said because of that, it's being considered vandalism and not a hate crime.

But Trotter disagreed. She said she thought hate crimes were defined by what crime was committed, not by which color the culprits were.

"Red, green, orange -- I don't care what color. I think they should be prosecuted for it," she said. "I take it very personal."

Trotter's home was one of several hit in the neighborhood, police said. Investigators are still looking for the culprits.