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Misha Defonseca: Author who made up Holocaust memoir ordered to repay £13.3m
The author of a bestselling Holocaust memoir has been ordered to pay back £13.3 million ($22.5 million) after she admitted much of her sensational story was pure fantasy.
Misha Defonseca, a Belgian writer now living in Massachusetts, claimed she was adopted by a pack of wolves and killed a Nazi soldier to survive after her Jewish parents were taken during the Second World War.
But it emerged that she was not Jewish, as claimed, her real name was Monica Ernestine Josephine De Wael and her tale of four years wandering through forests to escape the Holocaust was untrue.
Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years was published in 1997 and was translated into 18 languages and made into a French film called Survivre Avec Les Loups before Defonseca, 76, admitted that much of it was a lie.
The book, which is still on sale on Amazon for up to £15, took her around the world telling her story to Jewish groups and at Holocaust memorial events.
Its success led to a copyright case brought by Defonseca and her ghostwriter, Vera Lee, against publishers Mt. Ivy Press and they won millions in damages for unpaid royalties and wages in 2002.
But the loss led Jane Daniel, the head of the publishing company, to search for evidence of fraud in the story, which many had already doubted.
It unravelled when documents in Belgium revealed Defonseca was born under a different name and registered as a student at a school in Brussels in 1943, when she was supposedly in the midst of a journey across Nazi-controlled Europe.
“This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving,” she said in a statement to Associated Press in 2008.
“I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed. I beg you to put yourself in my place, of a four-year-old girl who was very lost.”
Although her parents were captured by Nazi soldiers, they were not Jews but Catholic and suspected members of the Belgian resistance.
They were taken in 1941, when Defonseca was four, not seven as in her memoir, and she went to live with her uncle’s family.
Both of her real-life parents were dead by 1945 but the similarities were not enough to outweigh the differences in court.
The publishers of the book moved to have the judgement against them reversed and in 2010 the Massachusetts Court of Appeals decided they had a case.
Although Defonseca argued she believed the story was true while the book was being written, judges found the false account “tainted” the trial that awarded her damages.
Court papers said the initial judge and jury believed it was a “heart-rending story of Holocaust survival”.
In the final judgement on 29 April, Judge Marc Kantrowitz wrote: “Here, we express no opinion as to whether Defonseca's belief in the veracity of her story was reasonable.”
According to the Courthouse News Service, he continued: “However, we agree with the second motion judge that, whether Defonseca's belief was reasonable or not, the introduction in evidence of the actual facts of her history at the trial underlying Mt. Ivy I could have made a significant difference in the jury's deliberations.”
www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent…
The author of a bestselling Holocaust memoir has been ordered to pay back £13.3 million ($22.5 million) after she admitted much of her sensational story was pure fantasy.
Misha Defonseca, a Belgian writer now living in Massachusetts, claimed she was adopted by a pack of wolves and killed a Nazi soldier to survive after her Jewish parents were taken during the Second World War.
But it emerged that she was not Jewish, as claimed, her real name was Monica Ernestine Josephine De Wael and her tale of four years wandering through forests to escape the Holocaust was untrue.
Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years was published in 1997 and was translated into 18 languages and made into a French film called Survivre Avec Les Loups before Defonseca, 76, admitted that much of it was a lie.
The book, which is still on sale on Amazon for up to £15, took her around the world telling her story to Jewish groups and at Holocaust memorial events.
Its success led to a copyright case brought by Defonseca and her ghostwriter, Vera Lee, against publishers Mt. Ivy Press and they won millions in damages for unpaid royalties and wages in 2002.
But the loss led Jane Daniel, the head of the publishing company, to search for evidence of fraud in the story, which many had already doubted.
It unravelled when documents in Belgium revealed Defonseca was born under a different name and registered as a student at a school in Brussels in 1943, when she was supposedly in the midst of a journey across Nazi-controlled Europe.
“This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving,” she said in a statement to Associated Press in 2008.
“I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed. I beg you to put yourself in my place, of a four-year-old girl who was very lost.”
Although her parents were captured by Nazi soldiers, they were not Jews but Catholic and suspected members of the Belgian resistance.
They were taken in 1941, when Defonseca was four, not seven as in her memoir, and she went to live with her uncle’s family.
Both of her real-life parents were dead by 1945 but the similarities were not enough to outweigh the differences in court.
The publishers of the book moved to have the judgement against them reversed and in 2010 the Massachusetts Court of Appeals decided they had a case.
Although Defonseca argued she believed the story was true while the book was being written, judges found the false account “tainted” the trial that awarded her damages.
Court papers said the initial judge and jury believed it was a “heart-rending story of Holocaust survival”.
In the final judgement on 29 April, Judge Marc Kantrowitz wrote: “Here, we express no opinion as to whether Defonseca's belief in the veracity of her story was reasonable.”
According to the Courthouse News Service, he continued: “However, we agree with the second motion judge that, whether Defonseca's belief was reasonable or not, the introduction in evidence of the actual facts of her history at the trial underlying Mt. Ivy I could have made a significant difference in the jury's deliberations.”
www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent…
Animal Spotlight: Cassia Crossbill
No deviations currently exist of this animal!
About
Scientific name: Loxia sinesciuris
Common names: Cassia Crossbill, South Hills Crossbill
Conservation status: Data deficient
Geographic range: South Hills and Albion Mountains of southern Idaho
Fun facts
:bulletgreen: It is virtually impossible to distinguish from the Red Crossbill by sight alone.
:bulletblack: These birds are reproductively isolated with no geographic barrier, supporting speciation.
:bulletgreen: This species may already be facing extinction due to climate change threatening Lodgepole pine (food supply).
Loxia sinesciuris on eBird | Loxia sinesciuris on Wikipedia | Loxia
Animal Spotlight: Tricolored Bumblebee
:thumb167348366: :thumb251408719: :thumb540353411:
About
Scientific name: Bombus ternarius
Common names: Orange-Belted Bumblebee, Tricolored Bumblebee
Conservation status: Least Concern
Geographic range:
Fun facts
:bulletgreen: Ternarius refers to the number 3 - in this case, the bee's 3 colors (red, yellow, black).
:bulletblack: Nests are made in the ground and are lined with honeypots.
:bulletgreen: Before the introduction of the Honey Bee in North America, this species was the only bee producing honey.
Tricolored Bumblebee on Wikipedia | Tricolored Bumblebee on IUCN Red List | Tricolored Bumblebee on Bugguide.net
The Tricolored Bumbleb
Animal Spotlight: Loggerhead Sea Turtle
:thumb95674042:
About
Scientific name: Caretta caretta
Common names: Loggerhead turtle, Loggerhead
Conservation status: Vulnerable
Geographic range:
Fun Facts
:bulletgreen: The loggerhead sea turtle appears on the $1000 Colombian peso coin.
:bulletblack: After a female lays a clutch of four eggs, she will be quiescent for two to three years.
:bulletgreen: Molecular genetics confirm natural hybridization of loggerheads with Kemp's ridley sea turtle, hawksbill sea turtle, and green sea turtles.
:bulletblack: Evidence is lacking, but it has been suggested that modern sea turtles descended from a LCA during the Cretaceous period - roughly 40 mi
Animal Spotlight: Blue Orchard Bee
:thumb168160138:
About
Scientific name: Osmia lignaria
Common names: Blue orchard bee, Orchard mason bee
Conservation status: Least Concern
Geographic range: One of 4,000 native bee species in North America. Two subspecies are recognized: O. l. propinqua (western) and O. l. lignaria (eastern).
Fun Facts
:bulletgreen: Brood cells towards the rear of the nest will develop into females, while the ones closer to the entrance will become males.
:bulletblack: This bee will not attack to defend itself - the stinger is actually an egg guide.
:bulletgreen: Mason bees do not produce honey.
:bulletblack: Because of its native status, this is a popular
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I read her book, it's.. amazing ;v;