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Kevin De Bruyne

Kevin De Bruyne

Misha Defonseca (b. 1937), who published a fraudulent Holocaust memoir in 1997, was in kinship care as a child

Defonseca was born Monique de Wael in Belgiam. After her parents were arrested because her father was in the resistance, Monique was sent to live with grandparents and then an uncle.

In the local community she was harshly treated, called the "daughter of the traitor" because her father apparently - while being tortured - gave up the names of other resistance fighters.

Defonseca and her husband moved to the US from Paris in 1988 and Defonseca began telling her story - of living in the forests around Germany and being protected by wolves - to the local Jewish community, including a book publisher, Jane Daniel, who encouraged her to write what became a best selling book.

Conflict between Defonesca and Daniel resulted in Daniel being sued for $22.5 million.

The 2021 documentary, Misha and the Wolves, tells the story about how Misha Defonseca was caught out being dishonest. Evelyne Haendel, a Belgian genealogist, Holocaust survivor, and what the documentary calls a 'hidden child' - Evelyne was a Jewish child protected in a Catholic school - was key to uncovering the truth.

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