French police investigations have confirmed that the claims made by French-Jewish woman Nancy Schegenberg in October last year regarding receiving anti-Semitic threats at her home in Paris were “fabricated and baseless,” according to multiple French news reports.
In this context, a report published by the French newspaper Le Parisien, translated by Sunna Files Website, stated: “The allegations gained particular significance because Nancy Schegenberg resides near the location where the elderly Jewish woman Mireille Knoll was murdered in March 2018.”
The same report detailed that on October 29, 2024, Nancy alleged that unknown individuals had drawn swastikas and the Star of David in blood-red paint on her front door. She also claimed to have received a death threat letter in her mailbox. In several media interviews at the time, she expressed her fear, saying she had been “living in terror since receiving these anti-Semitic threats.”
However, Le Parisien revealed on Saturday that Nancy was arrested on January 22 after security cameras installed in the building’s elevator caught her and her teenage daughter drawing the swastika themselves and writing the word “Jews” on their doorstep.
Further investigations showed that the postage stamps used on the supposed threat letters had been purchased using Nancy’s personal bank card. As a result, she was taken into custody and placed under judicial supervision, awaiting her trial scheduled for March.
Due to Nancy’s false allegations, at least ten Jewish-owned homes and businesses across Paris were vandalized, in addition to a synagogue in the northern French city of Rouen. The French police confirmed this after conducting their investigations.
Graffiti found on the walls of the synagogue, which had previously been vandalized and targeted for arson in May of the previous year, included messages calling for “Jews to be gassed,” according to Natasha Ben Haim, president of the Israeli Religious Association in Rouen, which oversees the synagogue’s affairs. In December, during Hanukkah, the synagogue was once again defaced with hateful messages.
Amid the controversy stirred by the case, Nancy’s neighbors initially came under suspicion, while far-right groups exploited the incident to target Muslims. At the time, the mayor of Paris’s 11th arrondissement, where the so-called “victim” resided, even expedited security measures for Nancy and granted her new social housing before the truth came to light.
The fabricated nature of this incident, and its immediate weaponization by anti-Muslim elements, underscores the persistent manipulation of Islamophobic narratives in France. The exposure of Nancy’s hoax further highlights the dangerous consequences of false allegations and the urgent need to challenge disinformation that fuels racial and religious division.
