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I was cold and I had to keep going
one step at a time.
That is survival.
You have to go forward
one step at a time.
I told myself,
"They think I'm alive."
"If they think I'm alive,
I can't let them down."
"So I have to keep going."
With animals I didn't need any words.
We were near each other
in silence
and understood without words.
In 2005,
I was planning on creating
as a professor of psychology
a project on
the story of this young child
who experienced all these adventures.
The project
became a huge,
magnificent exhibition.
Then we have the idea
to try and bring her to Belgium.
We watched her get out of the train.
It was a fascinating sight.
She was dressed in blue…
like a shining canary
with all its colours…
with two,
no, three big suitcases!
She came towards me
all radiant and beaming.
Right away, she exhibits
a very dynamic character,
very welcoming and very generous.
When Misha entered the exhibition,
she collapsed.
I was not warned of this,
so when I visited the exhibition,
I burst into tears
because it touched me very deeply.
She was so delighted to be there.
But on the other hand,
we saw the sadness come out
and the tears, the tears, the tears.
It was very emotional.
We were all really traumatised by her story
and we all wanted to give
a bit of joy to this woman
by showing our creativity
and our courage, too,
to show what we felt.
I missed my parents terribly.
My face was covered in mud.
I screamed…
some nights, from the cold.
Later on,
I got a second chance.
I survived because
I trusted no one.
Because I avoided
contact with humans.
Misha's story
had a snowball effect.
Already millions of books
had been sold.
And thereafter,
we had to work
to prepare the conferences
and get her to them.
So, we were always together.
At that time, she would often
come back to our home.
She would eat with us.
She was like a member of the family.
We had dozens of events.
Of course, we took her to them.
She was always welcomed
by the organisers
and always with a lot
of kindness and friendliness.
Everyone left the conferences
dazzled by this character.
We are going to talk
about this strange and wonderful story.
Misha Defonseca is with us. Hello.
Hello.
Thank you for coming to see us to tell us about this story.
Misha Defonseca is a witness of the Holocaust.
Hello.
You have to go through all the tragedy
and all the horrors.
It's very painful.
I have known hatred
and I have known the rage to kill
because it's my life or his.
Personally…
I live it every day.
I think about my parents every day, and for me,
the Holocaust is every day.
The memory stays with you every day.
Could you pass me a bottle of water, please?
There it is,
the trailer of Véra Belmont's film.
It's very touching to see you both here,
the real person and little Mathilde.
You seem very emotional.
It's as if you are reliving this story
every time you see the film?
That's right. It's very difficult.
Do you recognise yourself
in Mathilde's acting?
Absolutely, absolutely.
It's very well expressed.
She plays magnificently.
She conveys the emotions very well.
It was the thought of my mother that kept me going.
There is a scene in the film
which to me is extraordinary.
The one where she falls
out of the train
and she says…
Cinema, with a beautiful film
inspired by a true story.
You're great.
You're a great actress.
This story is very, very moving.
An incredible story
and yet a true story.
Cut! Excellent.
A book, then a film,
supposedly an autobiography,
but everything was false.
It was an incredible story,
the story of a young Shoah survivor.
Surviving with Wolves,
the bestseller that inspired the film
released last month…
is not a true story.
Everything is false.
It was a big scam.
But the beautiful story was entirely false.
In Belgium, her country of origin,
historians have discovered Misha Defonseca
is actually Monique de Wael.
There was a sort of anger that rose in me
which never left me.
The students who took part in the project,
the day I entered the class,
there was a state of revolt.
You have to imagine a pack in revolt.
Rants, tears, cries.
They were standing up on the benches.
I was no longer in control,
and I usually contained my students very well.
I contacted Misha straight away.
I wanted to be honest and authentic with her.
But she said, "Don't worry."
"It must be the doing
of the publisher in America."
Every journalist dreams of a scoop.
The question for me was,
if her story is false,
then what is her real story?
What I simply did
was go through the Brussels phone book
where there are approximately
400 de Waels.
So I started to call them
one after the other.
And at the 44th or 43rd name,
I stumbled across a woman called
Emma de Wael.
My meeting with Emma, Misha's aunt,
was extraordinary.
She didn't go off in search of her parents?
Good God, no.
She stayed with her grandfather and grandmother.
Emma told me
her niece had always been delusional,
that she would create
imaginary worlds for herself.
I went and fetched her regularly
with the number 56 tram to Anderlecht
and brought her to Schaerbeek.
In the evenings, I took her back
to Uncle Ernest.
Emma de Wael
told me the truth
about what happened during the war.
What happened to Robert de Wael,
Misha Defonseca's father.
Robert de Wael worked at Schaerbeek town hall.
He was really very patriotic
and very engaged in his role as a reserve officer.
I met Jean-Philippe Tondeur by chance
but he had a lot of documentation
on Misha Defonseca's father.
So I went to consult
Robert de Wael's file.
On 10th of May, 1940, the Germans invade Belgium.
They crush the Belgian army
during an 18-day campaign.
The king surrenders
and Belgium is occupied.
Robert de Wael
joins the resistance…
and begins to recruit resistance fighters.
As a resistance fighter,
Robert de Wael…
was involved in gathering weapons…
activating intelligence networks
and transmitting intelligence
to the Belgian government
which had gone to London.
Unfortunately, Robert de Wael wasn't very discreet
about his activities for the resistance.
He had a loose tongue.
He was proud of what he was doing.
Because I knew he had
secret documents.
He even showed them to us at home.
My father told him to be careful,
that he was becoming careless.
He risked arrest.
He was denounced by
a Nazi collaborator
and was quickly arrested.
Robert de Wael, his wife
and 41 arrested resistance fighters
are deported to Germany…
and sent to the Brauweiler Prison in Cologne.
The Cologne prison had a very harsh regime.
He is interrogated by the Gestapo.
He starts to scream.
Robert de Wael cracks.
Robert de Wael made a deal
in the Cologne prison.
This deal involved him handing over
the names of his fellow resistance fighters
in exchange for
his wife being protected
and to once again see his daughter,
Misha Defonseca.
In August 1942,
after betraying his fellow officers,
as the Germans had demanded of him,
Robert de Wael got one last opportunity
to see his daughter.
And that would be
the end
for Robert de Wael
who was later deported.
Robert and his wife Germaine
would both die in the German camps.
We called her "The Traitor's Daughter."
Because it was said that her father
sided with the Germans.
The municipality of Schaerbeek
would engrave a plaque
in the name of the resistance fighters
who died during the war.
Robert de Wael,
whose name was listed last…
was later erased.
On 22nd of February 2008,
once things were very clear,
we published Robert de Wael's whole story,
the betrayal,
the falseness of Misha Defonseca's account.
And in the hours that followed,
a statement was issued.
This is Misha Defonseca's statement.
"They called me 'The Traitor's Daughter'
because my father was
suspected of having
spoken under torture."
"This book,
this story,
is mine."
"It is not the actual reality,
but it was my reality…
my way of surviving."
"I ask forgiveness."
"All I ever wanted
was to exorcise my suffering."
I felt so rejected,
but I could not explain it to myself,
neither to my grandmother or my grandfather.
I am not the girl I thought,
but there are times…
when I still hesitate.
I say to myself,
"Did I or didn't I experience it?"
I have to think.
Particularly with animals.
I can still see myself
rolling on the ground
with wolves.
Have you seen my lovely wolves?
They will always be
my wolves.
I will be always at their side.
Even if I know the truth now.
I am at their side.
I got into a bubble,
a world of my own.
And this world of mine was filled with animals.
Animals that defended me
against humans.
You killed a human being with a knife?
Because I saw the rape
of a little girl.
I have enough distance
to take a more analytical look
at Misha's character.
When I saw that, I jumped
because he turned and came towards me.
At that moment, I only thought about one thing…
to live.
Because I wanted to live.
Misha created a world for herself,
a world of her own belief.
When he was close,
I stabbed him in the stomach.
I slashed everywhere.
The throat, the face.
I was covered in blood.
It was horrible.
Writing this book
has caused me to relive
my nightmares.
Misha sought refuge in mythomania,
and with time,
she slowly becomes
a character in her own story.
Every time I stabbed,
it was for this little girl, it was for the children,
it was for my parents.