One of the trouble with false atrocities is that they have the effect of stopping people believe in the real atrocities when they come along.

Lies about German atrocities in Belgium in the Great War had the effect that in due course when people learnt they'd been lied to they didn't believe the stories about real atrocities that had taken place there - and when it came to the Second World War it meant that information about the mass murder brigades and the death camps were disregarded as being more atrocity stories.

That's why it matters to get to the truth about episodes like this. And more than likely we never will know one way or the other.