Wilkomirski syndrome

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Wilkomirski syndrome (German : Wilkomirski-Syndrom) is a public phenomenon when non-Jews present themselves as Jewish Holocaust survivors or Jews with a Holocaust trauma in the family. It is considered fraudulent and is particularly common as a form of literary fraud in the Holocaust memoir circuit. The term is a reference to the Munchausen syndrome [1] and is named after Binjamin Wilkomirski, the pseudonym used by the author of Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood (1995), a false memoir which initially received positive publicity and several awards. The 1998 revelation that the book was based on fabrications initiated public discussions in Germany, and in 2001 the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies  [ de ] hosted a conference on "Das Wilkomirski-Syndrom". [2]

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Daniel Ganzfried  [ de ], the journalist who broke the story about Wilkomirski, argues that the case should be seen as a product of a larger industry of Holocaust-related material and academic Holocaust studies, where economic incentives lead to the creation of material of little or no value. [3] In addition to concern over the fraud acts themselves, many cases of false Holocaust stories are also criticized for enabling Holocaust denier claims as to the supposed falsification of the wider events of the genocide. [4] [5] Later cases that have been discussed in Germany as examples of the Wilkomirski syndrome include Fabian Wolff  [ de ], Wolfgang Seibert, Peter Loth, and Marie Sophie Hingst. [6] [7]

Cases

Authors

Other public figures

Works

In media

In the 2007 film The Memory Thief , a young man grows obsessed with the Holocaust and begins to believe that he is a Holocaust survivor. [9]

References

  1. ↑ Diekmann, Irene; Schoeps, Julius H., eds. (2002). Das Wilkomirski-Syndrom: Eingebildete Erinnerungen oder Von der Sehnsucht, Opfer zu sein (in German). Zürich: Pendo. ISBN   3-85842-472-2.
  2. ↑ Kassner, David (2002). "Das Wilkomirski-Syndrom. Eingebildete Erinnerungen, Oder: Von Der Sehnsucht, Opfer Sein Zu Wollen (Internationale Konferenz Des Moses Mendelssohn Zentrums Für Europäischjüdische Studien in Potsdam v. 23.-25.5.2001)". Zeitschrift für Germanistik (in German). 12 (3): 634–636. JSTOR   23976367.
  3. ↑ Baier, Lothar (4 August 2002). "Diekmann/ Julius Schoeps: Das Wilkomirski-Syndrom; Eingebildete Erinnerungen und von der Sehnsucht Opfer zu sein". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  4. ↑ Doerry, Martin (6 August 2019). "Why I Was Right to Report on Marie Sophie Hingst's Lies". Der Spiegel. Archived from the original on 3 January 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  5. ↑ "Perhaps 80 or 90% of what Mr. Avey says is true, but the problem is that deniers have this wonderful habit of fixing on every single thing which is obviously not true." "Veteran defends Auschwitz heroics story". Jewish groups, former concentration camp inmates say they have serious misgivings over some parts of Denis Avey's book about his time as prisoner in nearby labor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews. Reuters. 5 March 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Pohl, Dennis (17 August 2023). "Deutschland und das Wilkomirski-Syndrom" . Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  7. ↑ O'Sullivan, Dónal (2023). Fake: Famous Forged Documents and Their Historical Legacy. McFarland. p. 232. ISBN   978-1-4766-7839-9.
  8. ↑ Moritz Gerlach (2020), "KZ-Prozess: Die große Vergebung – leider falsch", Der Spiegel , 26 August, no. 1
  9. ↑ Henderson, Eric (9 May 2008). "Review: The Memory Thief". Slate Magazine . Retrieved 29 January 2025.
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