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The Wilkomirski Affair: A Study in Biographical Truth
This is the definitive report on Fragments , Binjamin Wilkomirski's invented "memoir" of a childhood spent in concentration camps, which created international turmoil.
In 1995 Fragments , a memoir by a Swiss musician named Binjamin Wilkomirski, was published in Germany. Hailed by critics, who compared it with the masterpieces of Primo Levi and Anne Frank, the book received major prizes and was translated into nine languages. The English-language edition was published by Schocken in 1996. In Fragments , Wilkomirski described in heart-wrenching detail how as a small child he survived internment in Majdanek and Birkenau and was eventually smuggled into Switzerland at the war's end.
But three years after the book was first published, articles began to appear that questioned its authenticity and the author's claim that he was a Holocaust survivor. Stefan Maechler, a Swiss historian and expert on anti-Semitism and Switzerland's treatment of refugees during and after World War II, was commissioned on behalf of the publishers of Fragments to conduct a full investigation into Wilkomirski's life. Maechler was given unrestricted access to hundreds of government and personal documents, interviewed eyewitnesses and family members in seven countries, and discovered facts that completely refute Wilkomirski's book.
The Maechler report has implications far beyond the tragic story of one individual's deluded life. It explores our feelings about survivor literature and the impact these works can have on our remembrance of the Holocaust.
In 1995 Fragments , a memoir by a Swiss musician named Binjamin Wilkomirski, was published in Germany. Hailed by critics, who compared it with the masterpieces of Primo Levi and Anne Frank, the book received major prizes and was translated into nine languages. The English-language edition was published by Schocken in 1996. In Fragments , Wilkomirski described in heart-wrenching detail how as a small child he survived internment in Majdanek and Birkenau and was eventually smuggled into Switzerland at the war's end.
But three years after the book was first published, articles began to appear that questioned its authenticity and the author's claim that he was a Holocaust survivor. Stefan Maechler, a Swiss historian and expert on anti-Semitism and Switzerland's treatment of refugees during and after World War II, was commissioned on behalf of the publishers of Fragments to conduct a full investigation into Wilkomirski's life. Maechler was given unrestricted access to hundreds of government and personal documents, interviewed eyewitnesses and family members in seven countries, and discovered facts that completely refute Wilkomirski's book.
The Maechler report has implications far beyond the tragic story of one individual's deluded life. It explores our feelings about survivor literature and the impact these works can have on our remembrance of the Holocaust.
512 pages, Paperback
First published April 10, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2016
Maechler, Stefan. The Wilkomirski Affair: A Study in Biographical Truth. [Includes the complete text of Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski. Transl. Carol Brown Janeway.] Transl. John E. Woods. New York: Schocken Books, 2001.
[The Wikipedia entry on Binjamin Wilkomirski provides a capsule summary of what this book is and how it came to be written.]
I'm fascinated by forgeries and frauds, and in particular by narratives of how they come to be uncovered. Maechler (and his translator) writes a very clear, calm, patient account of his investigations and conclusions. What I found particularly striking is the compassion he shows, not merely for the Holocaust survivors and other innocent persons taken in by Wilkomirski's fraud, but for Wilkomirski himself--even in the face of Wilkomirski's attack on Maechler's competence and motives. Maechler doesn't merely disprove the validity of Wilkomirski's Holocaust survival narrative; he uncovers the truth--what can be found of it--of Wilkomirski's real childhood, and he champions the suffering of the child Bruno Grosjean in exactly the way he is accused (by Wilkomirski) of betraying the suffering of the imaginary child Binjamin Wilkomirski.
He also has a very thoughtful discussion of why Wilkomirski's fraud was accepted as truth--and not merely accepted but fervently embraced--analyzing and explaining the phenomenon through the rhetorical strategies both of the book and of Wilkomirski's performance as a Holocaust survivor, and through the needs and desires of the audiences before whom book and man performed, especially the ways in which Wilkomirski fit into and advanced the agendas of various parties, most of whom were sincere and legitimate researchers, advocates, and survivors, but one of whom, Laura Grabowski a.k.a. Lauren Stratford a.k.a. Laurel Rose Willson, was every bit as much a fraud as Wilkomirski himself. Their collusion, shading strongly as it does into folie à deux, is one of the most train-wreck fascinating byways of Maechler's investigation.
But mostly the book is compelling for Maechler's patience and persistence, for the way in which, again and again, he uncovers the truth by retracing Wilkomirski's steps, by talking to the people Wilkomirski talked to (most notably the Holocaust survivor Karola, whose story Wilkomirski appropriated), by asking questions Wilkomirski never bothered to ask--in particular, Wilkomirski's story of entering Switzerland illegally, which, in its rhetoric of victimhood, of the helpless child caught in the cruel teeth of the bureaucratic machine, feels true to those of us who have neither experience nor expertise to know better, but which, Maechler discovers, simply cannot have happened that way--that, in fact, the bureaucratic machine would have macerated and spat out the child long before he got to Basel. It's a deeply illuminating and disturbing demonstration of how far a lie can get if it reflects what its audience thinks the truth should look like.
[The Wikipedia entry on Binjamin Wilkomirski provides a capsule summary of what this book is and how it came to be written.]
I'm fascinated by forgeries and frauds, and in particular by narratives of how they come to be uncovered. Maechler (and his translator) writes a very clear, calm, patient account of his investigations and conclusions. What I found particularly striking is the compassion he shows, not merely for the Holocaust survivors and other innocent persons taken in by Wilkomirski's fraud, but for Wilkomirski himself--even in the face of Wilkomirski's attack on Maechler's competence and motives. Maechler doesn't merely disprove the validity of Wilkomirski's Holocaust survival narrative; he uncovers the truth--what can be found of it--of Wilkomirski's real childhood, and he champions the suffering of the child Bruno Grosjean in exactly the way he is accused (by Wilkomirski) of betraying the suffering of the imaginary child Binjamin Wilkomirski.
He also has a very thoughtful discussion of why Wilkomirski's fraud was accepted as truth--and not merely accepted but fervently embraced--analyzing and explaining the phenomenon through the rhetorical strategies both of the book and of Wilkomirski's performance as a Holocaust survivor, and through the needs and desires of the audiences before whom book and man performed, especially the ways in which Wilkomirski fit into and advanced the agendas of various parties, most of whom were sincere and legitimate researchers, advocates, and survivors, but one of whom, Laura Grabowski a.k.a. Lauren Stratford a.k.a. Laurel Rose Willson, was every bit as much a fraud as Wilkomirski himself. Their collusion, shading strongly as it does into folie à deux, is one of the most train-wreck fascinating byways of Maechler's investigation.
But mostly the book is compelling for Maechler's patience and persistence, for the way in which, again and again, he uncovers the truth by retracing Wilkomirski's steps, by talking to the people Wilkomirski talked to (most notably the Holocaust survivor Karola, whose story Wilkomirski appropriated), by asking questions Wilkomirski never bothered to ask--in particular, Wilkomirski's story of entering Switzerland illegally, which, in its rhetoric of victimhood, of the helpless child caught in the cruel teeth of the bureaucratic machine, feels true to those of us who have neither experience nor expertise to know better, but which, Maechler discovers, simply cannot have happened that way--that, in fact, the bureaucratic machine would have macerated and spat out the child long before he got to Basel. It's a deeply illuminating and disturbing demonstration of how far a lie can get if it reflects what its audience thinks the truth should look like.
May 27, 2014
Since I was unable to get an electronic version of the original German text, I ended up reading this one in English. It's hard to fairly evaluate the writing of a book I read in translation, so I won't even try--the three-star rating is therefore based on structure and content. What I'd say is basically this: it's not a difficult read if you already find the topic interesting, but it's not the sort of book that will draw in someone who's not already intrigued by the kind of liar who so meticulously constructs his own world. One thing I did really appreciate, though, was the way the author tried to figure out not only where Wilkomirski's lies were, but where the ideas for them might have come from in his actual past, and what he might have gotten out of them psychologically.
April 28, 2013
More interesting than Fragments itself.
September 11, 2018
Containing the full text of Wilkomirski's "Fragments", the book is an objective but well-written account of historical truth, how the research for it went and what were the results. I liked the details the author included and the style in which the book was written as it made it quite pleasurable to read, even despite the heavy topic. I will not voice my personal opinion about the author of Fragments, as it doesn't really pertain to the Maechler's work and is overall irrelevant to its text. The book/report was split into logical parts and the epilogues included clear and enjoyable musings on the workings of readers' consciousness and media impact. Great work.
May 10, 2013
such interesting analysis and writing style; i don't trust self biographies anymore!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews