Stefan Maechler

Stefan Maechler is a Swiss historian and expert on anti-Semitism and Switzerland's treatment of Holocaust refugees during and after World War II. Maechler studied history and German literature at the University of Zurich. He was commissioned by the Schocken Books specializing in Judaica to conduct a full-scale investigation into the life of writer Binjamin Wilkomirski whose memoir Fragments, published by Schocken in 1996, sparked international controversy. Maechler studied hundreds of personal documents, and has interviewed eyewitnesses and families of survivors in seven countries. He was given unrestricted access to government files, and subsequently, discovered facts that completely refuted Wilkomirski's bestselling book as a forgery. Maechler published his findings in a book called The Wilkomirski Affair: A Study in Biographical Truth by Schocken Books, New York, in 2001 (496 pp.); originally in the German language as Der Fall Wilkomirski: über die Wahrheit einer Biographie by Pendo Verlag AG, Zurich, 2000. Maechler lives and works in Zurich.