Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years [Hardcover]

Misha Defonseca (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Mount Ivy Pr; 1St Edition edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963525778
• ISBN-13: 978-0963525772
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #524,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > History > Europe > Belgium

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Oooops - IT'S A FAKE!!!, March 1, 2008

By 

A. Dent "Aragorn" (Minas Anor, GD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years (Hardcover)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080229/ap_on_re_us/holocaust_book_hoax


Writer admits Holocaust book is not true

By MELISSA TRUJILLO, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 29, 5:12 PM ET

BOSTON - Almost nothing Misha Defonseca wrote about herself or her horrific childhood during the Holocaust was true.

She didn't live with a pack of wolves to escape the Nazis. She didn't trek 1,900 miles across Europe in search of her deported parents, nor kill a German soldier in self-defense. She's not even Jewish.

Defonseca, a Belgian writer now living in Massachusetts, admitted through her lawyers this week that her best-selling book, "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years," was an elaborate fantasy she kept repeating, even as the book was translated into 18 languages and made into a feature film in France.

"This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving," Defonseca said in a statement given by her lawyers to The Associated Press.

"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," the statement said.

[...]

Follow the link for the full, sordid story.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars AUTHOR CONFESSES HER STORY IS FAKE, February 29, 2008

By 

Mr. Truthteller (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating story. But it's not a true story. The author finally admitted that she made it all up. The truth is after the author's parents, non-Jewish resistance fighters in Belgium, were arrested in World War II, she moved in with some relatives who treated her as a traitor. This made her "feel Jewish" and she made up her story to feel better about herself. A shame, an insult and an affront to all those Jewish people who truly suffered. (But nonetheless quite a moneymaker for the author who, before her confession, got a judge to award her tens of millions of dollars from the publisher for unpaid profits from the book.)

59 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Let's be serious for a moment here, January 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years (Hardcover)

Uplifting and entertaining though this story may be, it is impossible to tell how much of it is true. Let's face it, no-one has ever been brought up by wolves, beautiful idea though it is. I would love to believe that wolves would take care of children, bring them up and feed them, but they don't.

There aren't any properly documented examples of wolf-children. It is an urban myth. Most of the "examples" can be traced back to some carnival barker trying to sell tickets to see somebody like "Pogo, the dog-faced boy". Just because a 19th century carny hustler says that a kid was brought up by wolves doesn't make it true.

I'm afraid that Misha either has a faulty memory or is telling an untruth here.