BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Judaism Holocaust Book is a Hoax

"A Belgian writer has admitted that she made up her best-selling "memoir" depicting how, as a Jewish child, she lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust, her lawyers said Friday."

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

I think Lisa, the outcome will be both. It does damage some people's perception of the holocaust, but I would think that possibly those who doubt that it happened at all and are in denial of it.

It is very sad that tis poor lady was so tramatised over the lost of her parents in such an horrific way and from such a young age too, and then to be bullied by her adoptive parents and made to feel a tratior, I think it is understandable that she did this. And after so long she obviously belived it.

BUT I would think she must have had some 'twinges' of reality at times, and I would think most definatly when it went to court, go get her money of 22,500.000 dollars, she would have been faced at least for a split second with the reality of this. I think it went on too long, and she enjoyed the success, and got carried away, with other peoples good intentions to get her the money, they belived she was intitled too. What could she do? What a situation to be in!

I know one tihng. I do not envy her at all.
I can only pray the reality of the holocaust is not put in jepardy, that would be extremely dangerous.

I think it's devastating.

Unfortunately, there are people who did go through horrific instances. To create a story in order to make money is awful. To create a story for your own healing - I can understand. But, why can't a person just say "this is fiction"? "This is a metaphorical representation of my own experience."

I cannot imagine what psychological warfare this woman went through in her own mind - both, from her childhood experiences and from the subconscious knowledge that she was living a lie.

There are people who do not believe the Holocaust existed. This will merely fuel their fire, but I don't believe it can do any more damage. If you don't believe, you don't believe.... I cannot believe there are people who do not believe.

I think it is a very scary lesson in how much denial and deceit a human being is able to live with.

I think this is very sad, but I don't see how it should diminish the reality of what many people experienced during the Holocaust, anymore than James Frey's false memoir "A Million Little Pieces" diminishes the reality of people who have struggled with addiction.

I believe this should be viewed as a writing issue. She didn't even really write the book, she had a Ghost Writer. The individual should be held accountable, not the subject of the story.

I don't think it should "damage faith in other Holocaust stories" any more than this individual's false novel should damage faith in all Belgium non-fiction writers.

I guess I worry it will chip away at faith. Sort of like if you get 10 false "this child is lost!!" emails in a row, and discover each one is fake, then when you get the 11th email message you react with a bit of cynicism to it. It's a shame that will happen, but hopefully people will be able to keep this one story in context.

I am sort of hoping it really is like The Life of Pi (which is a very good book for those who haven't read it) and she did convince herself that it happened, not that she was a charlatan from the very start.

Yes Lisa, I feel the same. It is a knawing fear, that one day people will have been so feed that it is a lie they will no longer belive it. But I guess I need more faith in human beings than that

I honestly don't think that because some people deny the Holocaust happened that this kind of thing diminishes it. It's not long ago that there were a number of BBC news articles about holocaust denials and then I watched Dr Bronowski's "The Ascent of Man" TV series last week. Episode 11 put it all in perspective because there he's talking about certainty and uncertainty and he finishes up in Auschwitz - this was back in 1969 - standing in the lake telling his viewers that this lake contained the ashes of 4 million people. He said that this was the price of certainty, knowing that you were right and that everyone else was wrong. It's one of the greatest moments of TV I've ever seen.

Do you think it will get "worse" that more people will deny the holocaust as time goes on, because there will be fewer first generation witnesses around to speak out against it? Or do you think there will be fewer deniers as time goes on, because it's more and more obvious to people that there are documented records of what happened?

I sort of get the sense that people who deny it are emotional deniers, that they deny it for emotional reasons - and once we get past the generation that had an emotional reason to not want to believe, that pretty much everyone will know it is a historical fact ...?

Lisa I don't know. I think it will depend on whether people want to belive too. Some people have other agendas, for many reasons. Apparently Iran's president denies the holocaust. I know in Germany it is actually a crime to deny it.
But also in comment to Gillian
That sounds awesome, yes, To know the truth ,when all around you deny it. It is a scary thought, to be that strong. I hope, if ever I need to be, that I to will have the courage to stand, look people in the face and say I belive, I know.
The main key is trust and belief in ones self.

Several versions of this quote exist. The essence of each version is the same -

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn�t speak up because I wasn�t a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn�t speak up because I wasn�t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn�t speak up because I wasn�t a Jew; And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

I know there is a sense of "panic" in the Jewish community because our last generation of Holocaust survivors are getting older. They are very powerful in speaking to younger generations (and older, Jewish and non-Jewish) and in keeping history alive. As survivors die, as in any war, the war becomes a part of history we read about only in books. We no longer have the opportunity to hear from and learn from the people who were alive and experienced it.

I think that naturally impacts the evolution of history and changes it a bit. The Holocaust is something that impacts every Jew, no matter how old, how young, how connected, how disconnected.... it changed the future of Judaism and will continue to impact future generations for years to come.

Right similarly they were saying that the very last WWI veteran is probably going to die soon and once he does, that this war will be only history - nobody will be left to talk to about it (at least in the US) ... when we think about the Civil War right now it's something obscure in the far past for many people.