discrepancies among names and dates in different translations helped to reveal the author’s true identity.

A genealogist reveals the painful truth about three Holocaust memoirs: they’re fiction

Untrue Stories

BY caleb daniloff

Detractors have called Sharon Sergeant a witch-hunter, a Holocaust denier, and even a Nazi.

32 BOSTONIA Summer 2009 photograph by vernon doucette Summer 2009 BOSTONIA 33 In her 1997 autobiography, Misha: A Memoire The tools of her profession include photographic timelines and data­ of Years, Belgian-born Misha bases — vital records, census reports, Defonseca claimed to have trekked war- property deeds, maps, newspaper interviews, obituaries, phone direc­ pocked for four years, starting at the tories — and living relatives. Skype, online records, and blogs have also age of seven, in search of her deported Jewish broadened her reach, and DNA testing parents. Along the way, she wrote, she took up is an option if she needs it. “The generic view of genealogy with a pack of wolves, slipped in and out of the is that it is about tracing relatives, the ‘begats,’” says Sergeant, a board Warsaw Ghetto, and killed a Nazi soldier. member and former programs director with the Massachusetts Genealogical In Europe, the book was a smash, court’s decision by proving the author Council. “It’s evolved.” translated into eighteen languages was a fraud. But her involvement in cracking and made into a hit film. In the It was there online, one day in open three Holocaust hoaxes is about United States, however, it had sold December 2007, that Sharon Sergeant more than an interest in the latest poorly — so poorly that Defonseca (MET’83), now an adjunct faculty technology. A former college dropout and her ghostwriter successfully member in BU’s genealogical research who raised a family and worked sued their publisher for $33 million program, stumbled upon the contro­ in computer engineering before for inadequate promotion, one of versy. And she thought she might be discovering genealogy, Sergeant was the largest judgments in publishing able to help. drawn to the Defonseca case because history. Two years ago, publisher Since then, Sergeant has become it offered a rare opportunity to Jane Daniel fought back, twenty- widely known as a hoax buster, putting showcase her field and to set the record first century style: she launched a to work the forensic skills she’s honed straight on what she believed were blog, called Bestseller, questioning over twenty years to help debunk unconscionable attempts to exploit Defonseca’s story, hoping to nullify the three fraudulent Holocaust memoirs. human tragedy for personal gain.

Red Flags and Zigzags

In her memoir, , born Monique De Wael, claimed that she spent four years of her childhood searching for her Jewish parents, who had been deported by Nazis from their native Belgium. After genealogist Sharon Sergeant began investigat­ ing, Defonseca admitted she had made up the tale. Here are some of the discrepancies.

Misha Defonseca 3 School records showed that 1 Photos published Defonseca was enrolled in only in the American the first grade in Brussels edition of the book at a time she claimed to be contradicted details in 2 In the French edition of the book, titled Survivre avec trekking in Ukraine in the the French edition. les loups (Survival with Wolves), the author changed com­pany of wolves. her surname from De Wael to Valle, but Sergeant could not find any record of the name Valle in likely street and phone directories. v Monique De Wael 5 Monique Valle

34 BOSTONIA Summer 2009 “I got involved because I knew the Records show that De Wael was solution would have two benefits,” enrolled in grammar school she says. “It would illustrate the methodology in a high-profile case, at the time she was supposed whatever the results were, and it would raise awareness for other to be living with wolves. Holocaust families about what could be done with modern genealogy techniques and records access. Simply put, I viewed it as an opportunity for the profession.” world who might have known her? At the same time, Serge Aroles, a Connecting the Dots “Part of figuring out the story French expert on wolf child stories, was It was one little thing that first raised is connecting the right dots,” says questioning Defonseca’s story on blogs Sergeant’s eyebrows about Defonseca: Sergeant. “When we do our research, and in a Jewish magazine. Sergeant the peculiar omission, in the French we use lots of information in the posted the baptismal certificate and edition, of photos used in the American­ form of names, dates, places, events, school register on Bestseller and sent a edition. Sergeant worked with photo activities, but they can create lots of link to Aroles. Within two days, Belgian identification experts, includ- different stories. The true story can be media picked up the story and Le Soir, ing occasional genealogical collab­ mixed in with other stories.” Belgium’s newspaper of record, tracked orators Colleen Fitzpatrick and Sergeant mined the various transla-­ down relatives and published several Maureen Taylor, to create visual and tions of the book and used the discrep­ stories. Sergeant also pro­duced a photo geographic timelines. Sergeant also ancies among names and dates to piece that contradicted Defon­seca’s claim wondered why Defonseca had changed together Defonseca’s true identity, of deformed legs and feet. Less than what she said was her adopted name, which was in fact Monique De Wael. two weeks after Sergeant’s posting on Monique De Wael, to Monique Valle. She also noticed a number of Catholic Daniel’s blog, Defonseca confessed to Could it have been an effort to conceal references in the text, and through con- ­ Le Soir through her lawyer. the facts from people in that part of the tacts in Belgium, including Evelyne Daniel, meanwhile, is still battling Haendel, a genealogist who herself had the judgment against her and her been an orphan hidden during the war, small publishing company and has she came up with a baptismal certifi­ turned her blog into a book, also cate proving De Wael was not Jewish. called Bestseller (Laughing Gull Press, School records showed De Wael was 2008). A $425,000 inheritance, held enrolled in grammar school, along with by her father, has been written over to Å n the sister of Defonseca’s future hus­ Defonseca, and Daniel has had to sign band, at the time she was supposedly over her house, as well. 4 Curious about many running across the countryside, hiding references to Catholic from Nazis and living with wolves. The Birth of a Hoax Buster rituals and literature in Official documents later showed Sergeant’s path to her profession has the book, Sergeant’s team that De Wael’s father was, in fact, a been long and winding. After studying searched for and found a Catholic resistance fighter turned math and physics for two years at baptismal certificate for collaborator. In the end, it took Northeastern University, she dropped De Wael, who claimed to Sergeant a little more than a month to out, had two children, and took work be Jewish. expose Defonseca, who had moved to in computer software development. the Boston area in 1985 and who had In the early days of minicomputer been telling her tale of desperation for engineering, Digital Equipment twenty years. Corporation, where Sergeant’s YY “It didn’t start out as personal,” husband at the time worked, had 5 Official documents showed Sergeant says. “Once I began working partnered with Metropolitan College that De Wael’s parents had with Evelyne, it became personal. I to host academic programs for adult been Catholic resisters felt horrible that Evelyne had to be students. Sergeant enrolled. arrested by the Germans, reminded of so much to do this work. “I was in a classroom environment rather than Jews rounded up It was very difficult for her to stand where the students were relatively by the Nazis, as alleged in on the steps of the Schaerbeek town homogeneous in that computer the book. hall — where her own mother had been industry boom,” she recalls. “We were

efonseca photo: ap photo/mary schwalm ap photo/mary photo: D efonseca rounded up for Auschwitz — and to be all juggling work and family. We were there to investigate a woman who had focused, serious, and practical.” committed such a devious fraud.” Later, divorced and raising her

Summer 2009 BOSTONIA 35 kids alone, Sergeant chipped away at Show in 1996. In her university credits. It was a time, 2007, Rosenblat she says, when “the only stability and his wife, Roma, and validation was my academic life returned to Oprah, through MET.” where they publicly In 1985, inspired by a genealogist celebrated their cousin, Sergeant began exploring her fiftieth wedding home’s property records and dabbling anniversary. The in family history. “I realized, in the talk show host mid-1990s, that my father’s generation called it “the single was beginning to die,” she says. “I knew greatest love story Web extra Watch a video of Sharon Sergeant talking I had better start gathering oral history . . . we’ve ever told on about the methods she used to crack Holocaust hoaxes at to see what this generation knew about air,” and it inspired www.bu.edu/bostonia. our ancestry.” a children’s book Sergeant listened to her father, called Angel Girl. wrote things down, studied her In 2008, Rosenblat writings, and found herself smitten. published a memoir (Riverhead). A split off from the women. That’s what After years in computer engineering $25 million film adaptation was being happened in Herman’s family. He and and later marketing and consulting, readied for production. his brothers were useful as laborers. she had finally stumbled upon a pursuit Elsewhere, however, critical read­ But in Roma’s case, it was really strange she found so compelling that it seems ers of Rosenblat’s book were asking that that large a group in a little village at times to pursue her, sometimes in probing questions and posting skep­ would survive.” unpleasant ways. tical comments on blogs. Sergeant, who Meanwhile, Sergeant had been Detractors have called Sergeant a learned about the increasing online talking with Kenneth Waltzer, director witch-hunter, a Holocaust denier, and chatter from a friend, was intrigued. of the Jewish Studies Program at even a Nazi. Worse, as longtime friend In November 2008, seizing another Michi­gan State University and an Marika Barnett, a Hungarian survivor opportunity to highlight the power of expert on child inmates at Buchenwald and a founder of the Federation of forensic genealogy, she began delv­ and its subcamps, including Schlieben, Jewish Child Survivors of the Holo­ ing into Rosenblat’s past, working where the apple-tossing purportedly caust, points out, deniers love it when backwards in time. took place. Waltzer knew from camp Holocaust stories turn out to be made First, by checking immigration schematics that it would have been up. A single fraudulent story, she says, records she established the date impossible to approach the fence puts the enormous, horrific truth Rosenblat arrived in the United States. without being spotted by a Nazi in doubt. It wasn’t long, she says, before red flags, guard. Transport lists and survivor “My own story tells how I was saved or zigzags as Sergeant calls them, began testimonies cast even more doubt. by the German SS,” says Barnett. “I appearing. Affidavits required for real One notable survivor, expect a lot of people to say this is a lie. estate transactions in Florida showed (who later competed in the Olympics Why would the German SS save Jews? that the golden wedding anniversary for England), was with Rosenblat For money, of course, but I bet there Oprah was heralding on television through transports, labor camps, and will be people who don’t believe it. Do had yet to occur. The couple was liberation. “He told us the story was, you? Just because I said so?” celebrating a full year early. without a doubt, a figment of Herman’s Sergeant also found that, starting imag­ination,” Waltzer says. “He’d in the 1970s, Rosenblat had been known Herman for fifty or sixty years In 1995, a now-retired television putting his holdings into Roma’s and never heard the story until the repairman named name, a move that could render him mid-1990s.” entered a New York Post essay contest judgment-proof. She also uncovered For Sergeant and Waltzer, Helfgott’s with a short story about his internment naturalization documents that showed word went a long way toward under­ in a German concentration camp, Roma Radzicky had come to the United min­ing Rosenblat’s story. But not all where a young Jewish girl who was States with her father, mother, young the way. hiding nearby used to toss apples and sister, and brother, who was born after “The worst thing you can do is bread over the fence to him. Years the war. make an accusation without having the later, the story claimed, the pair met “That’s important,” she says, “be­ proof,” Sergeant says. “We knew where on a blind date in the United States cause usually it’s just a fraction of a Herman was, but where was Roma?” and had been married ever since. family that survives. Roma’s mother Sergeant reconstructed the The irresistibly moving tale won the and father were at an age the Nazis Radzicky family on both the maternal contest, was included in Chicken found useful as laborers, but the chil­ and paternal sides and traced their Soup for the Couple’s Soul and led to dren often didn’t survive because they migration after the war. Through an appearance on the weren’t useful. The men would be documents from , Israel’s

36 BOSTONIA Summer 2009 Holocaust memorial and archive, and Last year, at the prompting of a Euro-­­ the class size to accommodate all U.S. records, she tracked down Roma’s pean publisher, she quietly debunked the students, who represent a range sister and then her sister’s son, a another Holocaust memoir that was of professions: library science, law, professor of Middle Eastern studies at about to be published. The “autobio­ medical research, journalism, and Princeton. As a fellow scholar, Waltzer graphical novel,” titled Rachel Sirai’s social work. got in touch with Roma’s nephew, Vineyard and written by Dutch-born Students in the program learn how who revealed that the family had been writer Deborah Rey, told the story to identify random old photos by hiding hundreds of miles away from of Rey’s birth mother, a Jewish vio­ analyzing details — shadows, the type Schlieben during the war — and he linist, who had allegedly been sent to of camera used, even the significance said he could prove it. He had helped Ausch­witz by her stepmother. of body parts captured on film — that his mother apply for aid through the “It’s a really ugly, bitter story,” might identify place and approximate Conference on Material Claims Against Sergeant says. “A Mommie Dearest type date. Other exercises include tackling Germany, which required a signed of thing.” Sergeant tracked down Rey’s real open cases, such as locating an deposition of her story. For Sergeant, brother in Canada, who told her that heir to $60,000 and identifying an that was the smoking gun. he and his sister had the same non- unclaimed dead body, the victim, per­ “Sharon’s a crackerjack,” Waltzer Jewish mother, and he offered to take haps, of foul play, which has stumped says. “She knows how to find pieces of a DNA test. The book was withdrawn, New Hampshire police for decades. evidence and how to put them together reluctantly, and not without a few At the core of the program, says in a pattern and to develop a narrative “witch-hunters” and “Fascists” thrown director Melinde Sanborn, who is a vice from them. She’s active, aggressive, and Sergeant’s way, the genealogist says. president of ASG, is the Genealogical smart. I learned a lot from her.” Proof Standard, a set of criteria for While Sergeant was digging through The Positive Stuff evaluating evidence and validating records, , a respected “Frankly,” Sergeant says, “I have more proof, which Sergeant used in the confronter of Holocaust deniers, had experience with this than I thought Rosenblat and Defonseca cases. “It’s been posting her doubts about Ros­ I would. I really don’t want to be a very laudable for BU to have embraced enblat’s story on her well-read blog, hoax expert. I’d rather do the positive genealogy,” Sanborn says. “It’s the first called simply Deborah Lipstadt’s Blog. stuff.” major university to put out a program Sergeant began using the blog to post The positive stuff, for Sergeant, like this that is based on a standards her evidence, such as Nazi transport involves applying her skills to such manual, so that people understand that lists that contradicted Rosenblat’s conundrums as missing heirs, disputed there’s a process and that it can have timeline and his length of internment artifact collections, and the where­ fabulous results.” at Buchenwald. abouts of adopted children, and help­ Next year, drawing on techniques In late December 2008, writer Gabe ing others to do the same. honed in her fraud cases, Sergeant will Sherman got wind of the investigation To that end, Sergeant signed on as teach a course on researching Jewish and broke the story online at The New an instructor in the new Certificate ancestry, through the Holocaust and Republic. in Genealogical Research program beyond. In the face of the evidence posted at MET’s Center for Professional “Holocaust frauds are popular,” says by Sherman, Rosenblat’s publisher Education, which will also be offered Sergeant. “Lots of reporters have said, canceled the book two months before online. The program, whose faculty ‘So what if the Rosenblats embellished its planned release, and his agent includes fellows of the respected the story? It’s a nice story; they’re an issued an apology. Rosenblat has American Society of Genealogists elderly couple.’ But the problem, from apologized too, but he insists that his (ASG), caters to serious hobbyists as a Holocaust standpoint and from the intent was to educate the world on the well as genealogical professionals, standpoint of survivors who tell their Holocaust and to promote tolerance. aspiring and working. There was real stories, is that it’s really not fair. As with other memoir frauds, including record demand in this spring’s debut It’s not fair game to lay a fairy tale on Defonseca’s, he has tried to carve out semester, and administrators increased the Holocaust stage.” p wiggle room by claiming the story was a survival tactic, a series of events that were true in his mind at the time he wrote them. “It wasn’t a lie,” he told ABC’s Rosenblat insists that his book Good Morning America in February. “It was my imagination. And in my was not a lie. Rather, he says, he imagination, in my mind, I believed it. Even now, I believe it, that she believed it in his imagination. was there and she threw the apples to me.” Sergeant had already moved on.

Summer 2009 BOSTONIA 37