Best-selling autobiographical book depicting the story of a
young Jewish girl living with the wolves while hiding from the Nazis turns out
that it was actually fiction.
“Survivre avec les Loups” or “Misha, a Memoir of the
Holocaust Years” in English, written by Misha Defonseca also inspired a movie
with the adventures described.
In an interview given to the daily “Le Figaro” on Friday,
Misha Defonseca revealed some shattering details about herself and the book.
Her real name is actually Monique Dewael and isn’t and never has been a Jew.
Moreover, after her parents were arrested by the Nazis during World War Two,
she was actually brought up by some relatives, and in fact hadn’t been
wandering across Europe, protected by wolves.
Well, that definitely spins around the experiences she said
she had. However, the author explained to the “Le Figaro” that the story of the
book is based on her own reality that made her alleviate the reality she had
been living in back in those years.
“It's true, I have always recounted to myself a life,
another life, a life that cut me off from my family, a life far from the men I
hated,” she said.
The experiences similar to those depicted in Richard
Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” appeared hard to believe at first, but millions of
readers were persuaded by the story of the 7-year old orphan who made a long
journey across Europe, fed and protected by
the wolves, just like Mowgli did. This is why the controversy of the fictive
memoirs disappointed so much, the trust invested was actually deceived.
“And I mixed everything up. There are times when it is
difficult for me to tell the difference between what was reality and what my
interior universe was. I ask pardon of all those who feel betrayed.”