Misha and the Wolves is a Netflix documentary for all documentarians, a primer on the truth combatted by the thrust of lies, which too often are disguised as truth. Misha and the Wolves chronicles Misha Defonseca's personal narrative of survival during the Holocaust.
Misha describes her flight as a 7-year-old Jew from occupied Belgium to Germany to find her deported parents. She does Anne Frank one better by not staying in a hideout but slogging countless miles, part of the time living with wolves. If the audience accepts the numerous staged shots as not compromising the veracity of the testimony, then this doc is a mesmerizing chronicle that won her best-selling book status and movie treatment.
Misha and the Wolves may feel like Jerzy Kosinski's Painted Bird (1965), weaving a narrative of Holocaust survival and flight at a young age, winning National Book Award, only to be disgraced by allegations of deceit.
Misha captures the enthusiasm of such notables as Oprah and millions of her fellow citizens buying Misha's book and celebrating her with unbridled enthusiasm. But like Kosinski's story, Misha's is false. After meticulous research in European archives, a Belgian genealogist proves Misha to have been a protected Catholic from a family whose captured father turned informant to the Nazis on his underground resistance fighters. Such a bizarre plot twist would almost not be accepted in fiction yet fooled the best literary minds of Europe and America.
The truth becomes a caution to those who don't challenge whatever they hear until they have responsible verification. In a way, Donald Trump must be credited for making us aware of our vulnerability to "fake news." While one talking head claims no redemptive value in Misha's false narrative, our awareness of being conned can only help us to become better stewards of cultural communications.
So many smart people were duped by their desire to have Misha's story be true, by their sympathy for Nazi survivors, and by their willingness to believe as long as the teller is using the right words and looking the right way.
Misha and the Wolves is an effective primer on deceptive communication. After hearing about Misha's journey, few of us would doubt its truth, yet doubt should have risen hastily as some initially said, "This is too good to be true."
Misha describes her flight as a 7-year-old Jew from occupied Belgium to Germany to find her deported parents. She does Anne Frank one better by not staying in a hideout but slogging countless miles, part of the time living with wolves. If the audience accepts the numerous staged shots as not compromising the veracity of the testimony, then this doc is a mesmerizing chronicle that won her best-selling book status and movie treatment.
Misha and the Wolves may feel like Jerzy Kosinski's Painted Bird (1965), weaving a narrative of Holocaust survival and flight at a young age, winning National Book Award, only to be disgraced by allegations of deceit.
Misha captures the enthusiasm of such notables as Oprah and millions of her fellow citizens buying Misha's book and celebrating her with unbridled enthusiasm. But like Kosinski's story, Misha's is false. After meticulous research in European archives, a Belgian genealogist proves Misha to have been a protected Catholic from a family whose captured father turned informant to the Nazis on his underground resistance fighters. Such a bizarre plot twist would almost not be accepted in fiction yet fooled the best literary minds of Europe and America.
The truth becomes a caution to those who don't challenge whatever they hear until they have responsible verification. In a way, Donald Trump must be credited for making us aware of our vulnerability to "fake news." While one talking head claims no redemptive value in Misha's false narrative, our awareness of being conned can only help us to become better stewards of cultural communications.
So many smart people were duped by their desire to have Misha's story be true, by their sympathy for Nazi survivors, and by their willingness to believe as long as the teller is using the right words and looking the right way.
Misha and the Wolves is an effective primer on deceptive communication. After hearing about Misha's journey, few of us would doubt its truth, yet doubt should have risen hastily as some initially said, "This is too good to be true."