German Historian Who Faked Family Holocaust History Dies At 31
Sophie Marie Hingst Image by Facebook
BERLIN (JTA) – German historian and blogger Marie Sophie Hingst, whose invention of a family Holocaust history was outed in a Spiegel Magazine article in June, has died in Dublin at the age of 31.
She was found dead in her apartment on July 17. Police have not confirmed the cause of death, but said no foul play is suspected.
In June, Hingst was stripped of a “Golden Blogger” award following revelations that she faked a family history of suffering in the Holocaust.
According to Der Spiegel magazine, which broke the story last month, Hingst sent 22 pages of testimony for nonexistent people to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and archive, in 2013. She reported about her “family” in her blog, titled “Read on my dear, read on.” She later took the blog off line, and her writings appear to be lost.
Dublin-based journalist Derek Scally, who interviewed Hingst for the Times of Ireland said it was clear to him that she suffered from mental illness. Hingst’s mother told Scully her daughter had several personalities.
Hingst, who had earned a degree in history at Trinity College in Dublin and was working for the hi-tech company Intel, had admitted to Spiegel magazine editor Martin Doerry that she had invented the family history; she called her award-winning blog literature, but Doerry concluded that she sometimes seemed to believe what she had invented.
After Doerry’s article was published, Hingst told Scally that she felt she had been “skinned alive.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
