Colleen Fitzpatrick

The memoirs of a girl of eight who wandered 3,000 miles across Nazi-occupied Europe searching for her missing parents was amazing enough. Add in her claims of surviving two freezing winters living with a pack of wolves and you have a truly astonishing tale. Unfortunately the life story that earned its author $10M and was translated into 18 languages was just that. A story. On February 28, 2008, Misha Defonseca admitted that her bestseller, Surviving with Wolves, was, as she preferred to say, "not the real reality".

What brought about Misha’s stunning confession was the work of a dogged team of forensic genealogists. With the help of a woman in Belgium who had been a hidden child during WWII, the team produced documents showing that at the time she claimed to be skinning rabbits in the snow and stealing food from farmhouses on her way to Poland, she was actually a four year old living with her grandparents’ flat in Brussels.

The fact that Defonseca confessed based on the only written and photo documentation alone disappointed the research team. Had she not done so, we were prepared to prove her true identity through matching her DNA with living family members.

Short description for brochure: On February 28, 2008, Misha Defonseca admitted that her international bestseller, Surviving with Wolves, was "not the real reality". As this talk explains, what brought about Misha’s stunning confession was the work of a dogged team of forensic genealogists who discovered documents about Misha’s childhood thought impossible to obtain.

Audience Level: All levels. Category: Methodology Format: Powerpoint AV Requirements: LCD Projector, Screen, and Lapel Mike

Links for further information:

Does Publishing Need Genealogists? Publishers Weekly interview, Jan 2009

Identifinders International Case History

Wikipedia article on Misha Defonseca