03 March 2008
The best-selling book ‘Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years’ written by Belgian writer Misha Defonseca, translated into 18 languages and adapted for the French feature film ‘Surviving With Wolves’ has been revealed as a work of fiction. Defonseca, 71, had previously claimed that she had lived with a pack of wolves after her parents were abducted by the Nazis and that she had sought out her parents across Europe for four years as a young girl and murdered a German soldier.
In a statement to the ‘Associated Press’ news agency, the author said: “The story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving. I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed. I beg you to put yourself in my place, of a 4-year-old girl who was very lost.” Defonseca, who said her real name was Monique De Wael, now says her parents were arrested and killed by Nazis for Belgian resistance activities when she was four and that she was cared for by her grandfather and uncle.