The Holocaust was one of the darkest chapters in human history. According to The Washington Post, over 11 million people were killed under the Nazi regime — 6 million of whom were Jewish. While immense documentation and countless personal accounts of this event were compiled by the Allies, the chaos of the war allowed for opportunists to slip through the cracks. People with little to no connection to the Holocaust would occasionally appear and give false accounts of their lives during these years, as was the case with Belgian author Misha Defonseca (via Slate).

The story-turned-autobiography she claimed as her experience during the war was one of a Jewish child whose parents were abducted by the occupying Germans. She then set off across Europe to find them, supposedly being sheltered by wolves and killing a German soldier in the process. While her parents were taken by German authorities, most of the book, including her name and age, were exposed as false (via The Independent). From 2008 onward, Defonseca was faced with immense public and legal backlash.

A judge ruled that Defonseca had to pay $22 million

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