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The Market for Hitler Obtain Hitler's Diaries Through His Brother in Stephen Berry East Germany The Journal of the Libertarian Alliance Vol. 6 : No.4- Article 6 of 8 known, convinced Heidemann that he could The Market for Hitler obtain Hitler's diaries through his brother in Stephen Berry East Germany. Heidemann convinced the people at Stern, who in turn provided Review of Robert Harris' Selling Hitler millions of marks. Over a three year period London, 1991. Kujau passed on the diaries to Heidemann who in turn passed on the money to Kujau. t the beginning of April 1983 the Unknown to each other, Heidemann was not historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, passing on the full amount of money to A recently ennobled as the first Baron Kujau, and Kujau was not passing on Hitler's Dacre of Glanton, met the London diaries to Heidemann. In actual fact, Kujau representative of the German magazine Stern was producing a competent (but not brilliant) at Heathrow. A former Regius Professor of forgery which Heidemann and friends were History at Oxford, Trevor-Roper's many all too willing to accept. Eventually, Stern honours included the position of Independ- decided to publish the diaries and submitted ent National Director of Times Newspapers. them for forensic tests and checks for It was in this role that he had been asked to historical accuracy. The scientists knew a fly to Zurich to verify the literary find of the fraud when they met one. The historians, 20th century. On the plane to Zurich Trevor- frankly, could not make up their minds. Roper regaled Wickman, the Stern repre- sentative, with his views on the ineffable This is a good story and Robert Harris tells it superiority of Oxford over Cambridge. The well. Naturally there were many comic German's views on the eccentricity of Eng- moments in this epic saga of self-deception. lishmen must have been amply confirmed as Before forging the diaries Kujau had Trevor-Roper told him that leaving an Ox- extracted a pretty penny out of forging ford professorship for a Cambridge master- Hitler's paintings for a German businessman, ship was rather like becoming a colonial Fritz Stiefel. A female nude signed, 'Adolf governor. In Zurich the historian was taken Hitler', but in reality by Kujau, was a poor to a room on the ground floor of the copy of Bathing in the Bergsee by Julius Handelsbank. On a table there were fifty- Englehard. When Kujau sold this painting to eight volumes of diaries in a stack more than Stiefel, he showed him a copy of the two feet high. In addition there was a bound Englehard painting and cheekily accused vol- ume of drawings and paintings, and a Hitler of plagiarism! When Heidemann First World War helmet, all purportedly contacts Kujau for the first time by phone, Hitler's. Only the Fuhrer's underpants were Kujau confirms that he can indeed get the missing. Trevor-Roper later described it as a diaries. In addition, he can also get the 'whole coherent archive covering 35 years'. handwritten third volume of Mein Kampf and The Stern men met his queries one by one so an opera by Hitler called Wieland the that Lord Dacre of Glanton became Blacksmith. Heidemann laps it up. Then absolutely convinced of the diaries' there was Billy F. Price from Texas. Price authenticity. His glittering reputation - and had one of the best collections of Hitler's that of many others - was about to be paintings in the world and was generally fas- irredeemably tarnished. cinated by the man. After the forgery had been exposed, Price remarked, 'People say How did the greatest fraud since the forma- that Hitler couldn't have kept diaries. They tion of the state come to pass? Gerd say he couldn't have done this, he couldn't Heidemann, a Stern journalist had become have done that - shit Hitler could paint paint- ob- sessed with the Nazi era. Although ings, he could write operas. Hell, he chronically short of money, he had controlled more real estate than the Roman purchased Goering's old yacht, renovated it, empire within three years. There's nothing and used it to hold parties for old Nazis. that Hitler couldn't have done if he set his Through these contacts he had been directed mind to it'. In 1984 Adolf Hitler as Painter to one Konrad Kujau (alias Fischer) in and Draughtsman by Billy F. Price and Stuttgart. 'Conny', as he was commonly August Priesack (ex-Nazi and Hitler expert) Free Life Archive on the Web from the website www.libertarian-alliance.org.uk Vol 6 No 4 The Market for Hitler - Stephen Berry Page 1 of 3 The Libertarian Alliance is an independent, non-party group, with a shared desire to work for a free society. came out. It contained over one hundred and speed as their own. As Irving noted, once fifty of Kujau's forgeries. It seemed that it you could do one page, you could easily do was Kujau who could do anything. twenty. The handwriting experts could not spot the impostor and were just as indecisive Harris spends less time on the 'lessons' of the as the historians. episode, but he does offer a few pointers. Whilst historians and journalists dithered, the People could not and did not want to believe 'natural' scientists at the Bundesarchiv that the Hitler diaries were concocted by one demolished the fraud. The paper of the diary otherwise unremarkable man. Radio Moscow contained chemical whitener which had not alleged that the affair was a CIA plot. Jeanne existed prior to 1955. The labels stuck on the Kirkpatrick detected the hand of an East Eu- front of the diaries had all been typed on the ropean intelligence agency, and there were same machine. The typewriter came from the many who smelt the handiwork of an old SS correct period, but although the labels network. The discovery of Hitler's diaries attached to the 1934 diary and the Hess merely served to amply confirm theories volume of 1941 were supposedly typed which all these people already held. seven years apart, there was no evidence of wear on the typeface. The four varieties of I dogmatically hold to an opposite belief. ink used in the diaries were common in West Without prior evidence, I would not be sur- German shops and did not match inks avail- prised if a determined, lone individual of able during the war. By measuring the limited talents, through a process involving evaporation of chloride from the ink, the blunder and counter-blunder, could achieve scientists established that the Hess volume the remarkable. Van der Lubbe burnt down had been written within the last two years the Reichstag all by himself, though people whilst the writing in the 1943 diary was less (depending on their political persuasion) still than one year old. want to believe it was the Nazis or the Com- munists. Oswald shot Kennedy, James Earl With this as background, it did not take long Ray shot Luther King, Chapman shot Len- to discover the forger's main source, Hitler's non and Hinckley shot Reagan because they Speeches and Proclamations by Max Do- wanted to make a splash, not because they marus. If there was nothing in Domarus, were working for the KGB, the CIA or Ron there was nothing in the diary. If there was a Lafayette Hubbard. The First World War mistake in Domarus, 'Hitler' repeated the er- broke out after an Austrian Archduke's car in ror. Domarus recorded a telegram to Hitler Sarajevo turned up the wrong road and from General Ritter von Epp congratulating stopped by a cafe where a Serbian nationalist him on fifty years in the army. In reality the was sitting, cursing his luck at having missed telegram was from Hitler to Von Epp. Kujau his hour of glory. I could almost certainly copied this error, word for word. kill John Major if I had the inclination, and was willing to take a few pains. Like most The saga reveals how foolish it was to rely people, I would not get sufficient of a 'kick' on expert authentication when that expert from killing the man. Nor would I enjoy the came from the social or psychological sci- almost inevitable capture and the following ences, (particularly if the expert - Trevor- years in a mental asylum (It seems you have Roper - had a feeble grasp of German). to be mad to kill a politician these days). The When The Times sought to authenticate the simple truth is that Kujau gave the punters Mussolini diaries, it engaged experts, what they wanted. In Britain, Bison Books including the author of the standard work on was built entirely on the public's fascination Mussolini, and a famous handwriting expert. with the Nazis. Hitler's Wartime Picture Not one expert spotted the fraud. Particularly Magazine, a reprint of extracts from Signal, worthy of comment is the 'science' of the Nazi propaganda magazine, sold 250,000 handwriting, or holography as the copies in the UK and USA. It reprinted eight practioners call it. Kujau was like Clifford times between 1976 and 1978. As Bison's Irving, the forger of the Howard Hughes founder Sidney Mayer said, 'Hitler sells. autobiography. They did not copy out works Nazis sell. Swastikas sell - and they sell in a slow and tedious manner; they wrote in better and better... Nobody can out-swastika another person's hand at virtually the same us. I've even thought of putting one on our Free Life Archive on the Web from the website www.libertarian-alliance.org.uk Vol 6 No 4 The Market for Hitler - Stephen Berry Page 2 of 3 The Libertarian Alliance is an independent, non-party group, with a shared desire to work for a free society.
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