Fake Holocaust Memoirist Owes $22.5M

Misha Defonseca wrote a harrowing tale about surviving the Holocaust by fleeing the Nazis and being raised by wolves. Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years was not only a successful memoir when it published in 1997, it was made into an Italian opera and a French movie. Unfortunately, it was all completely fabricated, and now Defonseca will have to pay the price: $22.5 million. A Massachusetts judge ordered her to return the money to her publisher, Mt. Ivy Press. Ironically, the fabrication would not have been uncovered if there hadn’t been a lawsuit involving her publisher hiding royalties from her. The ruling is “the third, and hopefully last,” said Judge Marc Kantrowitz.