About the Museum
The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoaxipedia (the museum's online encyclopedia of hoaxes), the Hoax Forum, and the Top 100 April Fools' Day Hoaxes.

The museum was created in 1997 by Alex Boese. He's assisted by a staff of deputy curators and docents. Alex is the author of three books, most recently Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (which has nothing to do with hoaxes). Check out the list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time for a preview.

Web Hoax Museum

I would have the thought the part about living with wolves would have tipped people off when the book was published, but what would I know....i was raised by bears

Wolves? How boring. I was raised by an alligator. I remember how my mom (the alligator) used to lovingly carry me around in her mouth.

And I was raised by wolves who had been raised by alligators who had been raised by turtles. (It's turtles all the way down.)

To change the tone of the thread, the book has to be real. It wasn't selected by Oprah's Book CLub.

Getting serious here, some psychologists theorise that some people who perform hoaxes like this aren't doing it for the money, but because they want attention and status. I myself have a certian reaction when someone tells me that their ancestors survived the holocaust: "You do know that automatically makes you cool in my eyes?"
Being a holocaust survivor or descened from one means that you're part of history, of what shaped our world. Hell, I'd give my teeth just not look up my family tree and leared that my ancestors came on the First Fleet! (That's the Aussie equivilant of the Mayflower for all you Yankies)

It's crap like this that makes the (real) history of WW2 difficult to teach.

This is the first I've heard of there being a pack of (real, not metaphorical) wolves in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Since the Ghetto was very crowded and the people were starving, a wolf's life expectancy couldn't have been long there, even though wolf meat is not strictly kosher.

But since I was raised by iguanas, there may be some cultural subtleties I'm missing here.

holocaust brainwashing for beginners,
part I: Survivors


The Defonseca case is full of interesting insights.

Before her silly story was debunked, our gullible independent media generally called her a 'holocaust survivor', well aware that this term is a teardrop starter.

Now suppose her story were true: her parents have been arrested for being illegal combattants in a country that had surrendered, not for being Jewish (which they weren't anyway).
She and her wolves had apparently never been harmed by the Germans.

If I understand 'holocaust' beatification rules correctly (which I'm not sure of),
a 'survivor' is one who escaped the Germans trying to kill him for racial reasons,
not for him (or his parents) being - legal or illegal - combattants in a war.
Otherwise all US troops returning from the war theater and the widows of those killed would be 'holocaust survivors'.

That much for our critical free press...

geeeze! how could the publisher not notice that the piece about the wolves is pure fantasy? I'm originally from Warsaw and everyone knows that there are no wolves here, just white, polar bears!

Alex
There is a new book to look into to see if it is faux hoax or not. ANGEL GIRL was reviewed by AP reporter today in Miami. Said to be memoir of two people who now live in Florida. Prob true, why would they lie? Then again, some people on the Net are beginnging to question this book's truthfulness. Can you post on this and let others chime in?

Allen


What if it turns out that this book is sort of fictiony, sort of made
up, but still a good story? This kind of faux book has been done
before, some women in Boston wrote a book about living wolves during
the Holocaust and France even made a movie of it, but it turns out the
book was a fiction, not a true story as she said it was. Has anyone,
like a reporter for the NYTimes or LA Times, checked into the true
veracity of this lovely inspiring "story". I hope I am wrong, but has
anything checked. If there is a smoking gun here it will be
embarassing.


a friend told me: "Based on my research and that of others, there is
no reason to question the fact that Herman was held in Nazi camps and
that Roma was posing as a Christian in a village. I don't doubt at all
that an apple was passed once or more, or that they met by chance
years later. But they may have exaggerated the fact that they managed
to toss an apple every single day for months. I think there is no way
to verify it was true, but maybe I am making too much of my
skepticism. So I hope you're wrong and that no one sees any reason to
doubt them. "


AND the AP reporter even asks this: "It all seems too remarkable to be
believed. Rosenblat insists it is all true." WHY THE WORD INSISTS
HERE?

The AP news said this too: Michael Berenbaum, a distinguished
Holocaust scholar who has authored a dozen books, has read
Rosenblatt's memoir and sees no reason to question it. [BUT JUST
TALKING ABOUT QUESTIONING IT MEANS SOME PEOPLE ARE QUESTIONING IT....]
"I wasn't born then so I can't say I was an eyewitness. But it's
credible," Berenbaum said. "Crazier things have happened."

So...
What if this "story", the backstory, turns out to be a fib? Remember
those other Holocaust stories that later turned out to be pure
fiction? And also got made into movies? Some reporter should check
into this to see if indeed the Rosenblats, who seem like a lovely
living couple, have indeed told the entire ''truth'' about how they
met. I suspect they did tell the truth. I hope it's a true story.
But. Some reporter should check.