Her Holocaust survival story was like something out of a movie — maybe too much so

Misha Defonseca had a secret. As she stood before the synagogue at Temple Beth Torah in Holliston, Massachusetts, she harbored a tale so remarkable that it would eventually catapult her to international notoriety. After a half century of silence, Misha began to share her story of escaping Nazi-occupied Belgium during the Holocaust. Her fellow congregants were stunned to learn the details of her journey.

The story began with Misha’s parents’ disappearance, after which she was “hidden” by a Catholic family who raised her. Determined to find her parents, she ran away, walking east across Europe, living mostly in the forest, subsisting on bugs, avoiding Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, and even stabbing one to death in self-defense. Astonishingly, she gained the trust of a pack of wolves, living among them for months and sharing in their kills

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