Holocaust memoir fabricated

It’s the big news in books today:

Writer Misha Defonseca admits falsifying information in her Holocaust memoir, Surviving with Wolves.

In the book, Defonseca describes how her caretaker planned to turn the young Jewish refugee over to the German. Fearful, she ran away, forced to live with a pack of wolves and steal farm chickens in or order to eat. Turns out, none of this happened, and Ms. Defonseca isn’t even Jewish.

The Daily Telegraph quotes the author:

“Ever since I can remember, I felt Jewish,” she said. “There are times when I find it difficult to differentiate between reality and my inner world. The story in the book is mine. It is not the actual reality – it was my reality, my way of surviving. At first, I did not want to publish it, but then I was convinced. I ask for forgiveness for all those who feel betrayed but I ask them to put themselves in the place of a small girl of four years old who has lost everything and who has to survive.”