Sharon Sergeant
Encyclopedia
Sharon Sergeant is a forensic genealogist who specialises in researching and tracing international
fraud
cases, property
settlements, and provenance of artifact
collections. Her expertise involves biographical research
for historians, publishers, authors, and journalists. She attended Northeastern University and received a bachelor's degree from Boston University
. She lives in Waltham
, Massachusetts
.
Sergeant is noted for exposing two high profile literary frauds in 2008, Misha Defonseca
and Herman Rosenblat
, and for expanding the discipline and application of forensic genealogy.
, lecturing on problem-solving techniques and technology
. She is a forensic genealogist at IdentiFinders and owner of AncestralManor.com, and a systems engineering consultant at General Voice and Epodworks. Sergeant has worked in the fields of provenance
, transportation systems, historical migration
patterns, and artificial intelligence
applications.
Sergeant and Colleen Fitzpatrick
led the team that exposed as a hoax Misha Defonseca
's bestselling book Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years (Surviving with Wolves). She also worked with the team that exposed Herman Rosenblat
's Angel at the Fence
as a fraudulent account of his time as a concentration camp survivor.
, internet
technology
and military
security
has been applied to forensic genealogy. She first complemented the work of forensic genealogist
and physicist
Colleen Fitzpatrick in the "Sheboygan Dead Horse Photo Mystery" in December 2006 by adding geographic map time lines to Fitzpatrick's photo analysis.
Concord No. V stagecoach
as an emblem for the ties between the American East Colonial
roots and the expansion into the American West. Sergeant collected material and consulted with other experts to augment documentation and analysis, concentrating on the 1840s through the 1880s.
In the Defonseca case, Sergeant added both photo and financial timeline analysis to the data mining to determine where to focus the research. This case also involved building an international team able to deliver information on complex hoaxes to the press.
Journalist Blake Eskin, author of a book about the Binjamin Wilkomirski
fraud, stated in regards to the application of technology: "Most Defonseca doubters had focused on passages that were logically or historically implausible, but Sergeant assumed the story was false and instead scoured the various versions of the text for clues to the author's real identity. The American edition mentions the name Monique De Wael; the UK edition includes a date of birth — May 12, 1937 — and the fact that Defonseca's father worked at the town hall. Sergeant plugged these data points into genealogical databases and found researchers in Belgium
to help look for information."
When Eskin did a follow up article
for Boston Magazine
, where the discussion of the Defonseca financial fraud required extensive documentation and rigorous fact checking, Eskin recognized the value of the emerging discipline. "Genealogy has an image as a fuzzy pursuit for hobbyists who poke around dusty church basements and hunch over microfilm machines in search of their seventh cousin three times removed. But Sergeant approaches the discipline with as much rigor as she did her earlier work ... "
's account of the way he survived a Holocaust concentration camp. Rosenblat's story related how he survived work camps in Poland
and Germany
because of a little girl who threw him apples and bread over the fence every day for seven months in 1942. He claimed that he was unexpectedly reunited with this same girl, Roma Rogers (originally Radzicki), on a blind date in New York in the 1950s, and married her shortly thereafter. Rosenblat promoted the story in the media for at least a decade, including appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show
and in a planned but never-published autobiography
and full length feature motion picture.
Initially, Deborah Lipstadt
, the Dorot
Professor
of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University
, had begun a general discussion of the improbability of the "Apple over the Fence" story on her personal blog in December 2007.http://lipstadt.blogspot.com/2007/12/apples-over-fence-holocaust-story-that.html
In November, Sergeant was recruited by several Jewish agencies to investigate the Rosenblat case as a result of the Defonseca exposure. Sergeant first consulted with Holocaust survivors then combined forces with Fitzpatrick to assemble records for the Rosenblat family from the US back through England
, Israel
, Poland
and Germany
.
Fitzpatrick and Sergeant discovered apparent discrepancies in the story, and worked with Kenneth Waltzer
, Professor
of Holocaust Studies at Michigan State University
to prove the story was a fraud. They showed that while Radzicki was supposedly supplying the food that kept Rosenblat alive, she was hiding under false papers in Allach, Germany
, about 200 miles away.
By November 12, Sergeant reported on Lipstadt's blog that the team had determined that Rosenblat's Holocaust story timeline of events was not accurate. Defenders conjectured that that was simply mis-remembering, but Sergeant pointed out that the Rosenblats had also mis-remembered their actual wedding date. The key to the hoax exposure was finding out where Roma Rosenblat and her family were during the Holocaust.
Sergeant and Fitzpatrick used dozens of documents, including transport lists of prisoners sent to the camps; historical records from the United States, Israel and Poland; maps of the camp drawn by former prisoners and survivors; and survivor testimonies. The team was able to verify that Rosenblat and his three brothers had been at Buchenwald and its subcamp. But one of the most crucial parts of the story lay in Roma Rosenblat's location - Roma's family had been in hiding more than 200 miles away, near Breslau, Germany.
International
----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
cases, property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
settlements, and provenance of artifact
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
collections. Her expertise involves biographical research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
for historians, publishers, authors, and journalists. She attended Northeastern University and received a bachelor's degree from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
. She lives in Waltham
Waltham
-Horology:* Waltham Watch Company, American watch manufacturer, pioneer in the industrialisation of the manufacturing of watch movements** Waltham International, Swiss subsidiary-Places:In Canada:*Waltham, QuebecIn England:...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Sergeant is noted for exposing two high profile literary frauds in 2008, Misha Defonseca
Misha Defonseca
Misha Defonseca , born as Monique de Wael, is a Belgian writer and the author of Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, first published in 1997 and at that time professed to be a memoir. It became an instant success in Europe and was translated into 18 languages...
and Herman Rosenblat
Herman Rosenblat
Herman A. Rosenblat, born in Poland in 1929, is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in 1950 and later wrote the Holocaust survival memoir Angel at the Fence...
, and for expanding the discipline and application of forensic genealogy.
Career
Sergeant is Director of Programs for the Massachusetts Genealogical Council, and adjunct professor at Boston UniversityBoston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, lecturing on problem-solving techniques and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
. She is a forensic genealogist at IdentiFinders and owner of AncestralManor.com, and a systems engineering consultant at General Voice and Epodworks. Sergeant has worked in the fields of provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
, transportation systems, historical migration
Historical migration
It is thought that pre-historical migration of human populations began with the movement of Homo erectus out of Africa across Eurasia about a million years ago. Homo sapiens appears to have colonized all of Africa about 150 millennia ago, moved out of Africa some 80 millennia ago, and spread...
patterns, and artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
applications.
Sergeant and Colleen Fitzpatrick
Colleen Fitzpatrick (forensic genealogist)
Colleen Fitzpatrick, Ph.D, FSPIE is an American forensic genealogist for major military and civilian organizations....
led the team that exposed as a hoax Misha Defonseca
Misha Defonseca
Misha Defonseca , born as Monique de Wael, is a Belgian writer and the author of Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, first published in 1997 and at that time professed to be a memoir. It became an instant success in Europe and was translated into 18 languages...
's bestselling book Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years (Surviving with Wolves). She also worked with the team that exposed Herman Rosenblat
Herman Rosenblat
Herman A. Rosenblat, born in Poland in 1929, is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in 1950 and later wrote the Holocaust survival memoir Angel at the Fence...
's Angel at the Fence
Angel at the Fence
Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived, written by Herman Rosenblat, was claimed by its author to be a Holocaust memoir telling the story of his reunion with and marriage to a girl who had passed him food through the fence while he was imprisoned at Schlieben, part of the...
as a fraudulent account of his time as a concentration camp survivor.
"Sheboygan Dead Horse Mystery"
Sergeant's earlier career in artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
security
Security
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
has been applied to forensic genealogy. She first complemented the work of forensic genealogist
and physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Colleen Fitzpatrick in the "Sheboygan Dead Horse Photo Mystery" in December 2006 by adding geographic map time lines to Fitzpatrick's photo analysis.
Stagecoach Maine
"Stagecoach Maine" is the historic story of the 1848 Lewis DowningLewis Downing
Lewis Downing served as Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1867 to 1872. After the death of John Ross, he was a compromise candidate who worked to heal divisions in the tribe following removal to the Indian Territory and the American Civil War.-Background:...
Concord No. V stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
as an emblem for the ties between the American East Colonial
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
roots and the expansion into the American West. Sergeant collected material and consulted with other experts to augment documentation and analysis, concentrating on the 1840s through the 1880s.
Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years
Colleen Fitzpatrick and Sergeant exposed as a fraud Misha Defonseca, the Belgian-born author of the international best-seller Living with Wolves. This led to legal efforts to overturn a $33M judgment Defonseca had won against a U.S. publisher for breach of contract.In the Defonseca case, Sergeant added both photo and financial timeline analysis to the data mining to determine where to focus the research. This case also involved building an international team able to deliver information on complex hoaxes to the press.
Journalist Blake Eskin, author of a book about the Binjamin Wilkomirski
Binjamin Wilkomirski
Binjamin Wilkomirski was a name which Bruno Dössekker adopted in his constructed identity as a Holocaust survivor and published author...
fraud, stated in regards to the application of technology: "Most Defonseca doubters had focused on passages that were logically or historically implausible, but Sergeant assumed the story was false and instead scoured the various versions of the text for clues to the author's real identity. The American edition mentions the name Monique De Wael; the UK edition includes a date of birth — May 12, 1937 — and the fact that Defonseca's father worked at the town hall. Sergeant plugged these data points into genealogical databases and found researchers in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
to help look for information."
When Eskin did a follow up article
Article (publishing)
An article is a written work published in a print or electronic medium. It may be for the purpose of propagating the news, research results, academic analysis or debate.-News articles:...
for Boston Magazine
Boston magazine
Boston is a monthly magazine concerning life in the Greater Boston area and has been in publication for more than 40 years.-About the magazine:The magazine is self-described as:...
, where the discussion of the Defonseca financial fraud required extensive documentation and rigorous fact checking, Eskin recognized the value of the emerging discipline. "Genealogy has an image as a fuzzy pursuit for hobbyists who poke around dusty church basements and hunch over microfilm machines in search of their seventh cousin three times removed. But Sergeant approaches the discipline with as much rigor as she did her earlier work ... "
Herman Rosenblat and Angel at the Fence
With Colleen Fitzpatrick, Sergeant played a role in exposing as a fraud Herman RosenblatHerman Rosenblat
Herman A. Rosenblat, born in Poland in 1929, is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in 1950 and later wrote the Holocaust survival memoir Angel at the Fence...
's account of the way he survived a Holocaust concentration camp. Rosenblat's story related how he survived work camps in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
because of a little girl who threw him apples and bread over the fence every day for seven months in 1942. He claimed that he was unexpectedly reunited with this same girl, Roma Rogers (originally Radzicki), on a blind date in New York in the 1950s, and married her shortly thereafter. Rosenblat promoted the story in the media for at least a decade, including appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
and in a planned but never-published autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
and full length feature motion picture.
Initially, Deborah Lipstadt
Deborah Lipstadt
Deborah Esther Lipstadt, Ph.D. is an American historian and author of the book Denying the Holocaust and The Eichmann Trial. She is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University...
, the Dorot
Dorot
Dorot is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located on Route 334 near Sderot, it falls under the municipal jurisdiction of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In 2008, it had a population of 454....
Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
, had begun a general discussion of the improbability of the "Apple over the Fence" story on her personal blog in December 2007.http://lipstadt.blogspot.com/2007/12/apples-over-fence-holocaust-story-that.html
In November, Sergeant was recruited by several Jewish agencies to investigate the Rosenblat case as a result of the Defonseca exposure. Sergeant first consulted with Holocaust survivors then combined forces with Fitzpatrick to assemble records for the Rosenblat family from the US back through England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Fitzpatrick and Sergeant discovered apparent discrepancies in the story, and worked with Kenneth Waltzer
Kenneth Waltzer
Kenneth Alan "Kenny" Waltzer in [New York] is an American historian and professor and the current director of the Jewish Studies Program at Michigan State University...
, Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Holocaust Studies at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
to prove the story was a fraud. They showed that while Radzicki was supposedly supplying the food that kept Rosenblat alive, she was hiding under false papers in Allach, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, about 200 miles away.
By November 12, Sergeant reported on Lipstadt's blog that the team had determined that Rosenblat's Holocaust story timeline of events was not accurate. Defenders conjectured that that was simply mis-remembering, but Sergeant pointed out that the Rosenblats had also mis-remembered their actual wedding date. The key to the hoax exposure was finding out where Roma Rosenblat and her family were during the Holocaust.
Sergeant and Fitzpatrick used dozens of documents, including transport lists of prisoners sent to the camps; historical records from the United States, Israel and Poland; maps of the camp drawn by former prisoners and survivors; and survivor testimonies. The team was able to verify that Rosenblat and his three brothers had been at Buchenwald and its subcamp. But one of the most crucial parts of the story lay in Roma Rosenblat's location - Roma's family had been in hiding more than 200 miles away, near Breslau, Germany.
Articles
- http://www.ancestralmanor.com Beyond the Herman RosenblatHerman RosenblatHerman A. Rosenblat, born in Poland in 1929, is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in 1950 and later wrote the Holocaust survival memoir Angel at the Fence...
Fraud - Truth in HistoryHistoryHistory is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians... - http://bestsellerthebook.blogspot.com/2008/05/report-from-sharon-sergeant-forensic.html Misha Defonseca: A report from Sharon Sergeant
- http://www.parlezmoipress.com/mermaid/2008/08/sharon-sergeants-summation-of-hearing.html Defonseca in Court: The Truth, Proof and Other Concepts
- http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1192322374/Uncovering-hidden-truths-Framingham-man-documents-the-exposure-of-a-fraud Uncovering Hidden Truths MetroWest Daily NewsMetroWest Daily NewsThe MetroWest Daily News is a morning and afternoon daily newspaper in Framingham, Massachusetts, USA, serving the MetroWest region of suburban Boston...
; May 17, 2008.- Julia Spitz interview with Sharon Sergeant - http://www.slate.com/id/2185493 Crying Wolf
- http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6549698.html Misha' Publisher Files to Overturn $33 Million Judgment
- Sharon Sergeant, "Holocaust Secret Exposed: How Forensic Genealogy Cracked the Misha Defonseca Case," Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly 23(June 2008):65-71. http://www.apgen.org
- Sharon Sergeant, "The Myth of the Impossible Proof: Modern Genealogical Methods and a Holocaust Fraud," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 96 (September 2008): 177-91.http://www.ngsgenealogy.org
- Sharon Sergeant, "Time Machine to Beam Back in Time," Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly 20(June 2005):71-76 http://www.apgen.org
- Sharon Sergeant, "Turning a Cottage Industry into a Business Sector," Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly 19 (June 2004): 61-64. http://www.apgen.org
External links
- http://www.identifinders.com/about.html Identifinders International
- http://www.youtube.com/user/HermanRosenblat Herman Rosenblat
- http://www.ancestralmanor.com Ancestral Manor
- http://professional.bu.edu/cpe/Genealogy.asp Boston UniversityBoston UniversityBoston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
Certificate in Genealogical Research - http://www.northeastern.edu/neuhome/index.php Northeastern University
- http://www.publishersweekly.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk_back_header_id=6578617&articleid=ca6628125 Publishers WeeklyPublishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
- http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/01/msu_professor_debunkspcouples_holocaust_hoax Kayla Habermehl, "MSU professor debunks couple’s Holocaust hoax," The State NewsThe State NewsThe State News is the student newspaper of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. It is supported by a combination of advertising revenue and a $5 refundable tax that students pay at each semester's matriculation. Though The State News is supported by a student tax, the faculty and...
, January 14, 2009. - http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=f458c2c8-0d4f-4dc7-8cba-15e465c2201a Gabriel Sherman, "The Greatest Love Story Ever Sold," The New RepublicThe New RepublicThe magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
; December 23, 2008. - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004103 Wyatt MasonWyatt Mason-Background and education:Mason was raised in Manhattan. He attended The Fieldston School in New York, the University of Pennsylvania, and also studied literature at Columbia University and the University of Paris.-Career:...
, "A False Story: Six Questions for Ken Waltzer," Harper's Magazine, December 31, 2008. - Untrue Stories, article & video on Sharon Sergeant and Holocaust memoir hoaxes