Parlez Moi Blog

Story: Nobody Cares About Middle Ground

2008-05-14T07:42:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned before I’m completely engrossed in Robert McKee’s book Story. It is so loaded with profound observations and information on the nature of story --- of what story is --- that I feel I could write a blog about every page. I am proceeding slowly because there is so much to digest. And I am underlining and marking pages and … well, you get the picture.

One of the wise observations he makes is that the nature of story relies on the extremes of human reality. Nobody much cares about the middle ground of experience. Naturally it is the ability of an author to set those extremes in a highly believable and familiar setting that makes the extremes plausible to the reader. So authors seek that balance --- a familiar environment as the setting for extreme behaviors. As McKee says: A believable impossibility is more satisfying as a story than an unbelievable possibility. Wise words.

Yesterday a wrote a little story for some cyber-acquaintances about a situation that has been the subject of an on-going conflict for much too long. In recent months I have tried to avoid it but I decided to deal with it by concocting a story based somewhat on the truth and post it. Basically, the characters, setting, and situation is true but, because I am a writer, the telling of the tale veered into the extreme, mostly to add humor, drama, and entertainment. I used myself as the butt of the joke at the end and then I hurled it out into the world for all to see. The results were interesting but not surprising.

I was talking to a fellow writer last night who is also a teacher. He writes historical novels based on his areas of interest as a history teacher. He was complaining about his students and he said that he is beginning to believe that kids spend so much time on the internet which, of course, necessitates them reading a lot, that they are losing the ability to differentiate between what is real and what is not real. To them cyber-life is so real that they come to believe that what they read there is equally real. I want to make a distinction here between “real” and “true”. “Real” involves the willing suspension of disbelief as Samuel Taylor Coleridge said. Suspension of Disbelief is what every author, screenwriter, director, actor, etc. relies on heavily in order to practice their art. When you can convince an audience that what they are experiencing is real then you can take them to outer space where they experience attacks by aliens, or back in time where they suffer through the plague. Whether or not those stories are true doesn’t matter --- the reality of them carries them, and those who experience them, into a separate reality.

So what happens when hours of immersion in cyber-reality become as real as actual reality? Does that suspension of disbelief become easily confused with real life? Which brings me to my story. Mostly it was an attempt to find humor in a depressingly pervasive situation. The majority of people who reacted to it reacted accordingly --- “OMG! That is so funny!” They got it. They realized it was a story that contained some elements of truth and some of the extremes of human experience that creates story. Several more took it as the gospel truth and polarized according to their personal prejudices. All in all it was highly instructive albeit not surprising to read the results.

I’ve always said that the joy of being a writer is that no experience, however awful or depressing, is wasted, if you get a good story out of it. In an interview on his web site author Gregory Gibson talks about Gone Boy, the book he wrote about the murder of his son in a school shooting. In the interview he says that writing that book was therapeutic for him. His experience in losing a son is one of the farthest extremes of human experience one can imagine. But his point is perfect --- whatever life hands us, from the sublime to the horrific, can be transformed through the art of story. Let’s hope that we never become so distanced from ourselves that we lose the ability to enter into that place of story and experience what we cannot live but what we can come to understand.

Thanks for reading.

That First Perfect Weekend

2008-05-12T08:26:00.003-05:00

It happens every year --- that first glorious weekend in Gloucester when the sun is brilliant and warm, the breezes off the ocean are salty and cool, the air is fragrant with sea salt and flowers and everyone is out wandering around drunk on the beauty of the day. We’re all a little bit daffy then. The temperature on the bank clock reads 57 degrees but nobody believes it. We put on summer clothes because we can’t stand wool and fleece one more day. There are people everywhere, walking, cycling, driving, sitting, basking in the sunlight. The dogs go nuts. Summer will come and soon.

It is hard to stay inside. Saturday was needleworker’s day and we gathered in Connie’s beautiful living room to work on our projects but the light was so beautiful shining down on the twin lighthouses of Thacher’s Island that we watched them all day. The waves were high and foaming white with little rainbows dancing off of them as they rolled and rolled and rolled. “Look at the waves,” we kept saying, “have they ever been as beautiful?”

There were so many birds at the feeders. The male cardinal showed up for the first time in awhile, so brilliantly red it was hard to look at him he was too beautiful. On the way home I bought sea scallops fresh from George’s Bank. They are not as big as the ones you see in the winter and darker in color --- the color of a baroque pearl --- but so delicious. They have so much more flavor but then everything does just now.

Sunday morning I met my friend for breakfast at Cape Ann Coffee and as we ate and talked and talked and talked blossoms from the cherry and apple trees swirled by on the wind. Everywhere there are flowers. Tulips like boldly colored eggs pop out of the ground and spread their petals to the light. It is Spring. It is Spring. The North Shore Arts Association opened today. Next Sunday is the opening party. I am giving a talk on blogs and how to use them. Somehow I find that funny.

And the best part of Spring, the white lilacs outside my front door are beginning to bloom. What smells more like promise than lilacs? Everything will be all right because it is Spring and the flowers are back and the waves are high and the birds are singing.

I went a little crazy and bought a bunch of fabric. I haven’t been sewing all winter and I miss it. For me sewing is a very peaceful, centering, nurturing activity. I started cleaning up the sewing room last week and then I saw all this gorgeous fabric and I couldn’t resist it --- pure, soft cotton in dusty rose, periwinkle blue and aqua the color of the light coming through the waves just as they crest and begin to turn over. I found a stash of sueded rayon, one of my favorite fabrics because it is soft and yet has such lovely drape. I can’t wait to have some time to myself in my sewing room. I know what I want to make.

And so it was that first perfect weekend . Today is cool and overcast but that doesn’t matter, it is Spring and Summer is on its way. (Below, photo by Dun Fudgin in front of East Gloucester School)

Thanks for reading.

What About the Money?

2008-05-09T08:47:00.000-05:00

One of the more interesting aspects of being as involved in blogging the Defonseca Hoax has been some of the emails I have received. I am absolutely gob-smacked, stupefied by our collective schizophrenia about money in this country. On the one hand everything seems to be about money --- getting more, spending more, making more, investing better, etc. and, yet, at the same time there is this huge collective chip-on-the-shoulder about people who actually make money (or appear to, even if they don’t). I’ve gotten a LOT of emails from people claiming to be outraged for any one of a dozen reasons about this case but the big thing that dominates these emails is a question of the money involved.

I can’t tell you how many times people have said that they felt no sympathy for the publisher because she only published the book for the money. Well, excuse me but, DUH! Why does anyone start a business? Why does anyone try to sell their work? In fact, why in the hell does anyone even get out of bed and go to work in the morning? Next question please.

I got a seethingly angry email from a guy who said that regardless of what Misha Defonseca may or may not have done, Jane Daniel was still an unscrupulous business woman that the court found guilty of fraud, deceptive business practices, and mishandling of funds. Yeah, based on the testimony of an admitted liar, perjurer and Holocaust fraud! Is anyone dumb enough to think Defonseca would bring this case against her publisher and then get on the stand and say, “Well, yes, she treated me fairly.” What kind of world do the people who write these letters live in?

The truth is that during the entire trial there was no financial expert witness called, no forensic accountant involved, and, in fact, no public examination of finances. Everyone chose to believe Defonseca’s claims that she received no money. Even when financial documents were entered into evidence they were overlooked by the jury. Daniel’s lawyer has publically stated that when the judgment is overturned he will call for a full financial disclosure of all the monies involved by all parties involved. Who can be dissatisfied with that?

But what this has pointed out to me, above and beyond the case at hand, is how willing all too many people are to accept the judgment of Big Daddy Justice System and how fearful they are of believing that maybe an entire court case ruling could be just plain wrong. I’ve been watching a lot of courtroom drama movies lately (more because I am trying to learn how to write a screenplay than anything having to do with this case) and I am struck by how often “miscarriage of justice” is the basis for a story. It is actually a very good plot line and one that seems to generate endless variations on. So, given how popular these movies are, one would think that people would be more suspicious of court rulings than they tend to be.

Recently, Gloucester, like many communities, is making a concerted effort to bring more business into the community. I could write all day about the issues involved there. But there have been several business proposals --- ranging from a research facility to a boutique hotel --- discussed. I am, again, stunned by the number of people who have a negative reaction to these proposals and justify it saying, “They’re just about money --- they don’t care about the people of Gloucester.” And what, pray tell, do the people of Gloucester need more than an infusion of money?

I don’t get it. Why are we so obsessed with money and, at the same time, so dismissive of the efforts of people to make it? If anyone can figure this out for me, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading.

A Little Piece of the Past Today

2008-05-06T07:37:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I visited a blog site in Erie, Pennsylvania and came across a wonderful video about that town. As most of my readers know I spent a great deal of my early life in Erie and there is a part of my heart that is always there. When I was writing The Old Mermaid's Tale I originally intended to set it in Erie but then, because I didn't want t cause any conflict over the placement of certain features and little details of history, I created a fictional town, Port Presque Isle. Still, readers familiar with Erie will recognize much of what I have written about.

This is the video. It is 27 minutes long and brought back many memories. The colleges it talks about especially - I attended Behrend (which I call Chesterton in my book), I dated a boy from Gannon (Hamilton in the book). My sister Anne attended Mercyhurst and my sister Chris Edinborough. So we have the colleges there pretty much covered.

But in the video there is a good deal of talk about the maritime history of Lake Erie and this is something that was very important to me when I was writing. I wanted to get it right and watching the video yesterday was reinforcing. I especially loved the photographs of the Old Customs House which is now a museum. Several scenes in my book are set in it. It is where Baptiste works while they are together and it plays a role in the ending.

So Ihope you will watch and enjoy this video. I love Gloucester --- but I love Erie, too...

Thanks for reading (an watching.)

SkyShots

2008-05-05T08:22:00.002-05:00

When I write one of the things I have gotten in the habit of doing is using the internet to remind me of the places I write about. Usually they are places I have spent time in or at least visited but there are times, too, when I need to familiarize myself with a new area. One of the best tools I have found for doing this is Google Earth. I love to spend time studying the shape of the land and its features as I am writing. It gives such a different perspective. And the thing I am most struck by is how very artistic much of our world is when viewed from above --- maybe that's why God stays with us even when we are screwing up big time.

I started a short story this week and part of it is set out on the tip of Cape Cod. A place I have spent a few weekends at in the off-season and love when it is quiet and not crawling with people. I was looking at it on Google Earth and was so struck by the gracefulness of the land and the water surrounding it that is seemed more like a piece of art.

So, because it was a cold and rainy evening and I was tired and felt like wasting some time, I started flying around to a few other beloved places and found many more pieces of aerial art that just astonished me with their beauty. Of course, one of the main characters in The Old Mermaid's Tale is Lake Erie itself, a place I have known and loved all my life. This image is Long Point, a peninsula that juts into the lake on the Canadian side. When Baptiste seduces Clair on the top of a lighthouse he has taken her up there to look at the lights of Long Point.

There is something so mesmerizing about the way water shapes land and land shapes water. I have loved Niagara Falls all my life. I haven't been there in fifteen years now. I remember that because I was with my sister Lisa the last time I was there and she was pregnant with Cal at the time. He just turned fifteen. This is the Horseshoe Falls from the air. So lovely. The pattern of the water as it splashes into the river is something I would like to develop into a background pattern sometime.

Of course this is just a little taste of such beauties. There are so many more. But it is a good way to revel in the beauties of the place I am attempting to write about --- it reminds me of why I write.

Thanks for reading.

Gloucester Light

2008-05-02T07:51:00.004-05:00

Gloucester seems to inspire a natural desire in people to capture the light and the beauty and the sense of place that is a part of living here. In recent months a few blogs have begun by local bloggers who post wonderful photography on their sites. I thought this might be a good time to share a few:

Captain Joe's Good Morning Gloucester: Captain Joe is the owner of Capt. Joe and Sons Lobster Company out on East Main Street. Joe is up in the wee hours of the morning and, as he drives about his morning routine, he photographs Gloucester. He has also done a spectacular job of documenting the working waterfront from which he makes his living. He also posts daily information on restaurants, artwork, and other items of interest in Gloucester. This is an excellent resource for people planning to visit here!

Jay Albert's Cape Ann Images: Jay is the best --- a great guy with a great eye for the beauties of our region and a camera always at the ready. He is the photographer who did such a great job of photographing the terrible fire we had here in December. Visit his blog for many excellent photos of our beautiful area.

JimB's Galleries of Birds and Bugs: Jim Barber is amazing when it comes to photographing birds and bugs. His galleries cover dragonflies, all manner of birds, sunrises and sunsets and more. He also has an online discussion group for bird lovers called For the Birds.

Les Bartlett's Follow the Gleam: Les is an artist with the camera. His artistry was the subject of a recent exhibition at Cape Ann Historical Museum. He has many prints for sale as well as DVDs of Cape Ann images. Les was once a performer with Le Grand David, the popular magic show in Beverly, MA. He is also a member of Cape Ann Artisans.

There are several other bloggers I'll talk about at another time but for now that should keep you busy. In the meantime, here are a couple more examples of Gloucester Light:

Thanks for reading.

Mending the Nets

2008-04-30T07:08:00.003-05:00

It has been a beautiful Spring so far here in Gloucester. There have been a few rainy days but lots of sunshine, too. The last couple days I am having trouble staying inside to work–-when the sunshine is as bright and golden as this I just want to go outside.

My favorite place to go when I have a few minutes is the state fish pier. I am not alone in that, there are plenty of people sitting in their cars reading the paper, drinking coffee, watching the boats go by. Now before summer arrives, it is all working boats in the harbor and they have been busy. Yesterday, just as I got there, a herring boat had come in and the pier was alive with activity. Huge totes of herring were being lifted off the boats and poured into bins to be taken inside and processed. Forklifts scuttled up and down the pier and the gulls–-the gulls were going wild! They soar in great, bright clouds around the boats and as the stream of shining, silvery fish pours out of the totes into the hopper that feeds them into the bins the gulls screech and swoop trying to snatch a prize. The men hate it but it is wonderful to watch.

And always there is the continual work of mending the nets, a timeless activity that has gone on since fishermen used nets and is not terribly different today than it was two thousand years ago. The nets today are plastic and fiberglass and miles longer than the nets of earlier times but the process is the same.

I have been watching the men mend their nets for close to twenty years now. These huge nets, which are strung out sometimes for miles in the ocean, are kept afloat by round orange buoys attached to the upper edge. The mesh of the nets is designed to let the smaller fish through so they can go on to keep breeding but they catch the gills of the larger fish so they can be gathered in by the fishermen. The nets spend a lot of time in the water where they sustain considerable wear and tear. Stuff gets caught in the nets that shouldn’t–-mostly sea vegetation–-barnacles grow and assorted pollutants get tangled up in them. They get attacked by larger sea creatures. Sections get torn and damaged. So the men spread the nets out along the pier and they get to work.

With knives the cut away the excess attachments, with line and large bobbins that serve as needles, they weave the damaged places back together. They move along the pier always bent over their nets working as they go. Some sit on over-turned plastic milk crates. Some stand, some kneel. They spend hours and hours. Sometimes I can hear them talking to each other as they work–-sharing news and gossip, telling stories, discussing politics and keeping the world running properly.

It used to be that Our Lady of Good Voyage, the Catholic Church with the two blue spires and the statue of the Blessed Mother holding a fishing schooner in her arms that stands on the hill overlooking the harbor and the fish pier, rang the Angelus at six in the evening. I don’t think they do that anymore but back when they did sometimes on summer evenings you could hear the men praying the Angelus as they worked. I loved that.

We live in a technically sophisticated age. I sit before a computer and earn my living. But I love to remind myself that as I sit here creating data, down on the fish pier there are boats unloading their catch, gulls, trying to steal a bit of it, and fishermen mending their nets. I find great comfort in that.

Thanks for reading.

New panel explores widespread ramifications of recently-revealed Holocaust memoir hoax

2008-04-28T10:14:00.001-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Susie Davidson
617-566-7557
Susie_d@yahoo.com

New panel explores widespread ramifications of recently-revealed Holocaust memoir hoax

In February, 2008, Misha Defonseca confessed that her bestselling autobiography, “Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years,” published in 1997, was a hoax. Publisher Jane Daniel appears in a new speaking tour addressing the hoax, along with genealogist Sharon Sergeant, who compiled the evidence that led to Defonseca’s confession; oral historian and Holocaust author Susie Davidson (“I Refused to Die”); and Holocaust child survivor Rosian Zerner.

The panel will explore the following areas:
° What are the consequences when an impostor usurps Holocaust history and places real survivors in question?
° In the light of other recent fake memoirs, how can publishers be sure that what they publish is true?
° What effect does a fake Holocaust testimonial have on deniers of the Holocaust?
° How did Misha Defonseca sustain the hoax for ten years and how was it exposed?

An open discussion period will follow the presentation.

Full information follows.

For booking information, contact Susie Davidson at Susie_d@yahoo.com or 617-566-7557.

New panel explores widespread ramifications of recently-revealed Holocaust memoir hoax

In recognition of Yom HaShoah, I would like to bring to your attention a new program being offered in the Boston area. As you may be aware, recently a Massachusetts woman, Misha Defonseca, confessed that her internationally-bestselling autobiography, “Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years,” was actually a hoax.

This new program, called “Deception and its Aftermath,” presents four women affected by the challenges that stem from this revelation, who discuss protecting the truth of the Holocaust from those who would usurp it.

Misha Defonseca began telling her fabricated story in 1989 when she spoke at a local synagogue on Yom HaShoah. Defonseca recounted that, as a seven-year-old child living in occupied Belgium, she set off on foot across the European theatre of war in search of her parents, who had been arrested by the Nazis. Twice during her travels, she said, she was befriended by wolves. It was all a lie. The truth is that she spent the war years at home with her Catholic family.

Nevertheless, for years Defonseca was warmly embraced by the local Jewish community. Those who were deceived by her story booked appearances for her, attended her speeches in schools and universities, and donated money. Such prominent figures as Elie Wiesel, the late Leonard Zakim, and Rabbi Albert Axelrod, then Chaplain of Brandeis University, contributed liner notes for her book.

The aftermath of her confession personally and profoundly impacts thousands in the Boston area who heard her speak and offered their support. Beyond that, this revelation affects those who gather stories of Holocaust survivors and Holocaust survivors themselves. There remain innumerable questions as to how such a monumental fraud could have occurred.

The panelists include:

Jane Daniel of Mt Ivy Press, the publisher whose original American edition of “Misha” was the basis of an international bestseller and a French feature film. Daniel herself painstakingly fact-checked the story line by line and employed other researchers, but in the end was also taken in. Defonseca sued Daniel, her U.S. publisher, in 1998, winning a $22 million judgment and the return of all rights to the story based on the finding that Mt Ivy had failed to sufficiently promote her book. Daniel has filed a lawsuit to overturn the judgment and posted chapters of her upcoming book on a blog.

Sharon Sergeant, the forensic genealogist who put together the team of researchers, who included real “hidden children” Holocaust survivors, that amassed the indisputable evidence leading to Defonseca’s confession. Sergeant’s work was made more challenging by the fact that Belgium has privacy laws that seal vital records for 100 years. As a member of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council Board of Directors, Sergeant advocates for open records to prevent fraud; in this instance, she employed a methodology that can be used by anyone doing historical research on their own family.

Susie Davidson, journalist for the Jewish Advocate and weeklies, poet, and author of "I Refused to Die: Stories of Boston-Area Holocaust Survivors and Soldiers who Liberated the Concentration Camps of World War II" and "Jewish Life in Postwar Germany." She speaks about and teaches courses on the Holocaust and global genocide with Dachau liberator Chan Rogers, and organizes genocide awareness events with the local Armenian and Rwandan communities. Davidson is a co-coordinator of the Boston chapter of COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and a board member of the Boston-based activist umbrella organization Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow.

Rosian Zerner, who survived the Holocaust in the Kovno Ghetto, Lithuania, and in hiding. She is the former Vice President of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust, where she also served on the Advisory Board and as elected Secretary. She is the contact person for the Greater Boston Child Survivor group, where she serves as representative on the WFJCS Governing Board and as Liaison to “Generations After,” a group for descendants of survivors. She is the Jewish Community Relations Council representative from the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston, where she serves on the Executive Committee. She is on the Holocaust survivors' Advisory Board (Hakalah) at the Jewish Family and Children's Service, is a docent for the New England Holocaust Memorial, and is on the Yom Hashoah Planning Committee and the Board of American Friends of Mogen Dovid Adom. Zerner has been the keynote speaker at the annual Yom HaShoah commemoration at Faneuil Hall, speaks at universities, synagogues, senior centers, clubs and organizations, and is an advocate on behalf of survivors.

# # #

April Know Your Neighbor

2008-04-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

Novelist, book promoter and intrepid blogger Kathleen Valentine will be featured

at the April Know Your Neighbor at the Sawyer Free Library

in Gloucester on April 28, 2008.

Her novel The Old Mermaid's Tale has received praise both for its

literary quality and its preservation of a unique time in American history,

the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to international commerce in 1959.

Read reviews and purchase the book on Amazon or visit the book's web site.

More recently her blog, Parlez-Moi Blog was instrumental in the exposé of the

Misha Defonseca literary hoax, widely acknowledged as the biggest literary

Holocaust hoax in history.

Valentine will talk about the writing of her novel and short stories and how she is

using the internet to promote them including the online video. She will also read from

her forthcoming novel, Each Angel Burns and talk about how she and two other bloggers

uncovered the Misha Defonseca hoax.

Behind the hoax...

2008-04-25T13:07:00.001-05:00

Published in the Waltham paper today...

By Jeff Gilbride/Daily News staff

Daily News Tribune

Posted Apr 25, 2008 @ 01:03 AM

WALTHAM —

Misha Defonseca's Holocaust story captured literary audiences and those for silver screen until one woman asked: "What's wrong with this picture?"

A combination of meticulous research and access to public records allowed genealogist Sharon Sergeant to expose the Belgian woman's 20-year hoax.

At a seminar at Bentley College tomorrow, the Waltham resident will talk about the sleuthing skills she used to uncover the truth behind the 1997 autobiography "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust."

"I'll be speaking about how we solved the case, how we cut through all the smoke screens and all the inconsistencies in the story and how we came up with records that would identify who she was," Sergeant said. "One of the key facts are the records in Massachusetts where she's lived since 1985."

Through public records, Sergeant learned that Misha Defonseca was born Monique Josephine Ernestine De Wael in Belgium in 1937.

Defonseca, 71, owns a home in Dudley but Sergeant is unsure of her exact whereabouts. Sergeant said Defonseca married Maurice Defonseca in the 1970s. The couple moved to Millis in 1985.

"Sometime in the late 1980s, Misha started telling her story about being a Holocaust victim in local Massachusetts synagogues," Sergeant said.

Sergeant said eventually the story grew and Defonseca was offered speaking engagements in local colleges. In 1997, she published her memoir, a book that was translated into 18 languages.

The book is an autobiographical tale of a young Jewish girl whose parents were arrested and deported by the Nazis in 1941. The 6-year old girl was then taken in by a Belgian family who offered protection and a new identity. Sergeant said that was a lie.

"The family she first identified as her foster family was her real family," Sergeant said. "She was born a Catholic in Belgium with Catholic parents."

Her parents, Robert and Josephine De Wael, had actually been members of the Belgian resistance during the war and were executed.

The book goes on to describe the young girl's journey to find her real family. She wanders across Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Yugoslavia, across the across the Adriatic Sea, through the Alps and back to Belgium. During her journey, she said she was sheltered by a pack of wolves and witnessed the horrors of World War II.

The book was eventually picked up by a different publisher in France released as "Surviving with Wolves." The story is also the basis of a French film of the same name.

Sergeant said the new version had fewer photographs than the original American version.

In 2001, Defonseca won a $33 million judgment against the original U.S. publisher of the book, Mount Ivy Press, Sergeant said.

"She claimed the U.S. publisher had cheated her and had not promoted her book properly. ... Mount Ivy was destroyed by this. They were a tiny independent publisher," Sergeant said. "The story that was told in the original U.S. book was key to finding out who she really was."

The real purpose of the lawsuit, she said, was to kill the U.S. version because it had too much information.

In December 2007, Sergeant said she read an online blog by the U.S. publisher, Jane Daniel of Mount Ivy Press. Sergeant said Daniel was still struggling to understand why Defonseca turned against her after Daniel made it possible for her to publish her story.

"Jane Daniel was desperate to find out the real story because she had been destroyed by these lawsuits," Sergeant said. "I read Jane Daniel's story and I said, 'I think this can be solved."'

During that time, Sergeant said she had been in touch with national and international experts on forensic genealogy while working on different cases.

"I consulted with some people that I thought would be helpful. In fact by February, we had the documentation to prove who she really was," she said.

"The very first thing that helped us acquire the documents that were critical in the expose was the U.S. publication. It had a lot of photographs."

Sergeant said the photographs from the original story along with information gathered from Defonseca's friends and relatives provided her with enough information to determine inconsistencies in her story.

"We had that as a guide because those photographs were stripped from the modified version," Sergeant said. "We looked at the difference between the original U.S. version and the subsequent foreign version. We focused on that and literally said, 'What's wrong with this picture?"'

Sergeant said a physical resemblance allowed her to determine Defonseca's "foster grandparents" were her real grandparents.

Sergeant also found Defonseca was not born in 1934, but 1937. Two months ago, Sergeant started releasing Defonseca's birth certificate and school records to different publications in Belgium.

"There were several people in Europe who were questioning her story publicly and who were being attacked for questioning her story," Sergeant said. "By that time we had figured out who she really was. Once we did that, that information went to the Belgian press. Misha lived here in Dudley. She was asked to comment on this info. Her initial response was she was hurt anyone would question her."

Sergeant said she continued to leak information through the Belgian press, eventually leading to Defonseca's admission that the memoir was a fantasy.

"Finally at the end of Feb. 29 she confessed that she was actually Monique De Wael and that she wasn't Jewish and she wasn't a hidden child," Sergeant said.

"This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving," Defonseca said in a statement given by her lawyers to the Associated Press in February.

Daniel from Mount Ivy Press filed suit in state court on April 9 to overturn Defonseca's original $33 million judgment, Sergeant said.

Sergeant is hoping to spread a message to preserve public records to prevent fraud in the future.

"In Belgium the vital records, birth, marriage and death are sealed. That means they are not open for inspection for 100 years," she said. "That allowed Defonseca to keep secret who she really was. For people who were skeptical, they couldn't check on a lot of things because the records were not available to them."

The Massachusetts Genealogical Council's seminar will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Lacava Conference Center. Sergeant is scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m.

Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com

Question of Motive

Misha Defonseca's motive to lie about her past is unclear but Sharon Sergeant says it may have been for attention.

"From the best we can tell, when she first started this it was for attention," she said.

From 1989 to 1992 Maurice Defonseca, her husband, was an international executive with a French computer company, Sergeant said.

"The French computer company Phillips was headquartered in Paris. During the time period she was telling the story, Maurice wasn't around much."

In 1992 Maurice became unemployed and by 1994, the couple was experiencing financial hardship, Sergeant said.

"She started soliciting money for her cause again while working on the publication of her book. This escalated," Sergeant said. "By 2001 when the trial against her original publisher (Jane Daniel) was happening, they claimed they were penniless and claimed they were taken in by a family in Milford."

Sergeant said she has never met Defonseca in person but said she has heard firsthand accounts describing her personality.

"Everybody that knew her personally as well as the woman that took her in Milford for 2 1/2 years said she was a compelling person," Sergeant said. "She clearly has some kind of acting ability to pull off what she did."

By Jeff Gilbride/Daily News staff