Four decades ago, the media went completely off the rails when it was reported that Adolf Hitler’s diaries had been found. And no less than 60 volumes of the innermost worlds of one of the most terrible dictators of all time.
The newspapers were reportedly found in East Germany, specifically in an old plane wreck.
Huge sums of money
The famous German newspaper Stern paid the equivalent of 513 million Icelandic ISK for the newspapers in 1983 and then sold the publication rights to other media.
Among other things, the famous British newspaper Sunday Times paid around 140 million for the right.
On April 25, 1983, Stern published the diaries’ first chapters and, just in case, ordered two million copies of the diary that day to meet demand. The Sunday Times followed suit.
But as soon as the diaries were published, many began to doubt that they were genuine Hitler diaries. Historians in particular were critical and did not hide their opinion.
Not yet!
The owners of the Sunday Times shuddered at the idea that the newspapers were fake.
The newspaper had already bought newspapers at high prices in 1968. They were newspapers belonging to the Italian dictator Mussolini, but they turned out to be fake and damaged the image of the newspaper enormously. For a long time it was dismantled and assembled in derision.
The executives of The Sunday Times could not imagine the idea of ​​ending this story repeating itself.
Trevor Roper to the rescue
But then a man named Hugh Trevor-Roper stepped forward. He had written a world-renowned and award-winning book on Hitler in 1947, The Last Days of Hitler, and was considered the foremost of all historians on all things Adolf Hitler.
Trevor-Roper was initially hesitant, but after reading a few chapters and getting confirmation from Stern that the newspaper had dated the newspaper – which was actually a lie – Trevor-Roper delivered the verdict that the newspapers were fine. those of Hitler.
The Sunday Times men were relieved.
Hugh Trevor Roper.
First that Hugh Trevor-Roper said the books aren’t forged, that must be true.
Stern’s Giant Mess
But Stern hadn’t just failed to date the data and have handwriting experts examine the text. The journal keepers, in their haste and excitement to get their hands on the journals, had also completely neglected to investigate the journals’ origins.
They hadn’t asked for the name of the plane, where it was found, or who originally found the newspapers that later ended up at their table, for a huge sum of money.
The German government therefore intervened in the case, because the publication of the newspapers could violate German law which prohibits anything that could be qualified as Nazi propaganda.
Stern therefore asked the government to obtain three of the books, and the German authorities asked the most qualified experts in the world to revise the books. It took almost no time for the group to declare the logs fake.
Their report states that it is not Hitler’s handwriting, the paper and ink for the books would have been produced long after the end of World War II, the paper would have been soaked in plain tea to make it look older.
In addition, a number of facts have been uncovered which it is considered impossible that Hitler knew about.
There was even a misspelling of Hitler’s name at one point, but usually people can spell their name now.
Even Adolf Hitler’s mass murderers were disturbed.
The truth comes out
The diaries were actually written between 1981 and 1983 by a man named Konrad Kujau. He often called himself Herr Fischer and presented himself as a renowned collector of rare objects and works of art.
He had long dabbled in forging paintings he sold as the work of Hitler, but DV once published an article about forgeries of the dictator’s paintings.
Stern’s credibility literally fell to zero, and two of the paper’s most senior editors were fired. The same could be said of the Sunday Times, which fired staff left and right and demanded back pay from Stern.
Hugh Trevor-Roper was virtually ostracized from academia, no one wanted to publish his books, and his career as a historian came to an end.
Konrad Kujau in the courtroom.
Konrad Kujau and Stefn journalist Gerd Heidemann, who made the deal to buy the books, were arrested and both found guilty of theft and forgery.
They were both sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Kujau confessed to the falsehoods and Heidermann always maintained his innocence.
