Binjamin Wilkomirski was a name Bruno Grosjean / Dössekker (born 1941) adopted when he pretended to be a Holocaust survivor. Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ...

In 1995 Binjamin Wilkomirski, professional clarinetist and instrument maker living in the German speaking part of Switzerland, published a memoir entitled Bruchstücke. Aus einer Kindheit 1939–1948 (Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood 1939-1948). In it he described what he claimed were his experiences as a child survivor of the Holocaust. Wilkomirski relates his fractured memories of World War II in a simple language, mainly written from the point of view of an overwhelmed, very young Jewish child. He recounts as the first clear memories of his life how in Riga, Latvia, a man was crushed by uniformed men against the wall of a house. Maybe this was his father – the storyteller is seemingly too young for a more precise recollection (he never mentions his year of birth in the book). After this, Binjamin and his brothers hid out in a farmhouse in Poland. Then was he arrested and interned in two Nazi concentration camps, in one of which he met his dying mother for the last time. After his liberation from the death camps he was brought to an orphanage in Krakow and, finally, to Switzerland where he lived for decades before he was able to reconstruct his fragmented past. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™­ clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... This article describes some ethnic, historic, and cultural aspects of the Jewish identity; for a consideration of the Jewish religion, refer to the article Judaism. ... Map of Latvia Coordinates: Founded 1201 Mayor Aivars Aksenoks Area    - City 307. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

First Publication

First published in German in 1995 by the Jüdischer Verlag (part of the highly respected Suhrkamp Verlag), Bruchstücke was soon translated into nine languages; an English translation with the title Fragments appeared in 1996, published by Schocken. The book earned widespread critical admiration – but nowhere was it as enthusiastic as in Switzerland and in the English speaking countries. Some critics even compared the author to Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi or Anne Frank. He was invited to participate in radio and television programs as a witness and expert, and was interviewed and videotaped by the most reputable archives. In addition, he received three important awards. His book sold well, but it was, in contradiction to common belief, not a bestseller. (Maechler, 2001a, pp. 111–128; Oels, 2004, pp. 376–9) In his oral statements he elaborated on many aspects which remained unclear or unexplained in his writing. He mentioned for example the names of the concentration camps in which he was interned (Majdanek and Auschwitz), and he claimed that he had been himself the victim of unbearable medical experiments. (Maechler, 2001a, pp. 22–83) Eliezer Wiesel (commonly known as Elie) (born September 30, 1928) is a world-renowned Hungarian novelist, philosopher, humanitarian, political activist, and Holocaust survivor. ... Primo Levi Primo Levi (July 31, 1919 – April 11, 1987) was an Italian chemist and author of memoirs, short stories, poems, and novels. ... Annelies Marie Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 – February/March, 1945) was a German-born Jewish refugee who died in Bergen-Belsen. ... Majdanek in the winter, 2005 Majdanek is the site of a German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, roughly 2. ... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ...

Ganzfried's Report

This success made the public shock all the greater, when a Swiss journalist and writer in the summer of 1998 questioned the veracity of Fragments: in August 1998 Daniel Ganzfried, himself the son of a Holocaust survivor, wrote an article in the Swiss newsweekly Weltwoche where he argued convincingly that Wilkomirski knew the concentration camps “only as a tourist”, and that, far from being born in Latvia, he came from Biel in Switzerland. Moreover, he was actually a certain Bruno Grosjean, an illegitimate child of a unmarried mother named Yvonne Grosjean. The boy was sent to an orphanage in Adelboden, Switzerland, from which he was taken in by the Dössekkers, a wealthy and childless couple in Zurich, who finally adopted him. Die Weltwoche (The World Week) is a Swiss weekly magazine based in Zürich. ... Place du Ring in Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne is a town in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. ... Adelboden is a municipality in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. ... Location within Switzerland   Zürich[?] (German pronunciation IPA: ; usually spelled Zurich in English) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ...

Wilkomirski became a cause célèbre, in the English speaking world appearing for example on 60 Minutes, in Granta, The New Yorker, and the BBC. Wilkomirski himself insisted he was an authentic Holocaust survivor who had been secretly switched as a young boy with Bruno Grosjean upon his arrival in Switzerland. His supporters condemned Ganzfried, who, however, presented more evidence. The beleaguered Wilkomirski could not verify his claims, but Ganzfried too was unable to prove his arguments conclusively. (Maechler, 2001a, pp. 129–164; Eskin, 2002, pp. 104–153) The ticking TAG Heuer stopwatch from 60 Minutes. ... Granta 37, published September 1991 Granta is a literary magazine which publishes new writing — fiction, personal history, reportage and investigative journalism — four times a year. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry, and fiction. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. ...

Exposure

In April 1999 Wilkomirski's literary agency commissioned the Zurich historian Stefan Maechler to investigate the accusations. In fall 1999, the historian presented his findings to his client and to the nine publishers of Fragments: Ganzfried’s charges were completely true; the alleged autobiography contradicted all essential historical facts. Amongst other things Maechler revealed that a Holocaust survivor named Laura Grabowski whom Wilkomirski had claimed to know from his internment in the camps was a fraud. The false survivor Grabowski had previously used the name Lauren Stratford to write about alleged satanic ritual abuse, a story which itself had been debunked ten years earlier. In addition, Maechler described in detail how Grosjean-Wilkomirski had developed his fictional life story step by step and over decades. Most fascinating was Maechler’s discovery that Wilkomirski’s alleged experiences in Poland closely corresponded with real events of his factual childhood in Switzerland: Apparently, the author rewrote and reframed his own experience in a complex manner in the collective terms of a Holocaust child survivor autobiography. It remained unclear how consciously he did this. But Maechler was very skeptical that Wilkomirski was a “cold, calculating crook”, as Ganzfried assumed. (Maechler, 2001b, pp. 67–9) Laurel Rose Willson (August 18, 1941 – 8 April 2002) was an American woman born in Washington, whose allegations of Satanic ritual abuse were published under the alias Lauren Stratford. ... Satanic ritual abuse, or SRA, is an alleged practice of an organized network of Satanists engaging in brainwashing and abuse of victims, especially children, throughout the United States or even the world. ...

Maechler’s first report was published in German in March 2000; the English edition appeared one year later (Maechler, 2001a), and included the original English translation of Fragments which had been withdrawn by the publisher after Maechler’s report in fall 1999. Subsequently, the historian published two essays with additional findings and analysis (Maechler, 2001b, 2002), whereas Ganzfried (2002) published his own controversial version of the case (s. Oels, 2004; Maechler, 2002). The journalist Blake Eskin (2002) covered the affair as well. Eskin’s interest in Wilkomirski had its origins in genealogy: his family had ancestors in Riga, and, initially, they believed that the author of Fragments could perhaps be a long-lost relative. In the same year the public prosecutor of the canton of Zurich announced that she found no evidence of criminal fraud. She added that a DNA test she had ordered had confirmed that Wilkomirski and Grosjean were the same person. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 13, 2002) Genetic fingerprinting or DNA testing is a technique to distinguish between individuals of the same species using only samples of their DNA. Its invention by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester was announced in 1985. ...

Aftermath

The Wilkomirski case was heatedly debated in Germany and in Switzerland as a textbook example of the contemporary treatment of the Holocaust and of all the perils of using it for one’s own causes. However, the affair transcends the specific context of the Holocaust. Wilkomirski’s case raises questions about the literary genre of autobiography, the aesthetics of a literary work’s reception, oral history, memory research, trauma therapies etc. Cover of An autobiography, from the Greek auton, self, bios, life and graphein, write, is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled as told to or with). The term dates from the late eighteenth century, but the form is much older. ... Oral history is an account of something passed down by word of mouth from one generation to another. ...

See Also

• The Holocaust Industry

• Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering is a book by Norman G. Finkelstein, who is jewish, which argues that an industry has exploited the memory of the Holocaust to further Jewish and Israeli interests, and has corrupted the Jewish culture and Jewish heritage of Judaism as... Eliezer Wiesel (commonly known as Elie) (born September 30, 1928) is a world-renowned Hungarian novelist, philosopher, humanitarian, political activist, and Holocaust survivor. ...

Books

• Blake Eskin: Life in Pieces: The Making and Unmaking of Binjamin Wilkomirski, New York and London: Norton, 2002, ISBN 0-393-04871-3
• Daniel Ganzfried: Die Holocaust-Travestie. Erzählung. In: Sebastian Hefti (ed.): ... alias Wilkomirski. Die Holocaust-Travestie. Jüdische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 2002, pp. 17–154, ISBN 3-934658-29-6
• Stefan Maechler (2001a): The Wilkomirski Affair: A Study in Biographical Truth, Translated from the German by John E. Woods. Including the text of Fragments, New York: Schocken Books, ISBN 0-8052-1135-7
• Stefan Maechler (2001b): Wilkomirski the Victim. Individual Remembering as Social Interaction and Public Event. In: History & Memory, vol. 13, no. 2, fall / winter 2001, pp. 59–95
• Stefan Maechler: Aufregung um Wilkomirski. Genese eines Skandals und seine Bedeutung. In: Diekmann / Schoeps (eds.): Das Wilkomirski-Syndrom. Eingebildete Erinnerungen oder Von der Sehnsucht, Opfer zu sein. Pendo: Zurich and Munich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-472-2.), pp. 86–131
• David Oels: A real-life Grimm’s fairy tale. Korrekturen, Nachträge, Ergänzungen zum Fall Wilkomirski. In: Zeitschrift für Germanistik, N.F. 14 (2004) vol. 2, pp. 373-390
• Binjamin Wilkomirski: Fragments. Memories of a Childhood, 1939–1948. Translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway. New York: Schocken Books, 1996