In a wild tale from the early 80s, a forger conjures fake diaries of Adolf Hitler, feeding the media's insatiable hunger for sensationalism. The absurdity peaks as journalists chase a story too implausible to be true, driven by the allure of Nazi memorabilia and deceitful nostalgia. As the hoax unravels, ethical dilemmas surrounding authenticity and credibility take center stage. Chaos ensues, revealing a labyrinth of deception intertwined with a bizarre obsession for historical artifacts and the dark side of journalism.
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Forgery Techniques
Conrad Cujo forged Hitler's diaries using common school tricks to age the paper.
He sprinkled tea on the pages and bashed them around to create a worn appearance.
insights INSIGHT
Diary Content
Conrad Cujo's forged diaries included mundane details from Hitler's calendar.
However, he added "personal" sections with fabricated, less "Hitler-y" reflections.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Hitler's Flatulence
One forged diary entry described Hitler complaining about flatulence and bad breath due to new pills, per Eva Braun's observations.
This fabricated detail aimed to humanize Hitler.
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Selling Hitler by Robert Harris tells the story of the Hitler Diaries scandal, where forged diaries attributed to Adolf Hitler were sold to several media outlets, including Stern and The Sunday Times. The book details how a small-time forger, Konrad Kujau, and a Nazi-obsessed journalist, Gerd Heidemann, collaborated to create and sell the fake diaries. The narrative exposes the greed, hubris, and gullibility of the media and experts involved, leading to a massive financial and reputational fallout when the forgeries were finally exposed by the West German state archives. Harris's account is based on extensive research, including interviews with key participants and prosecution evidence from the subsequent trial.
In the early 80s, a German magazine thought it had the scoop of the century: access to Adolf Hitler’s secret diaries. But as soon as excerpts of the diaries were released, critics pounced. Soon, the magazine that published them, the expert who verified them, and the journalist-slash-Nazi-enthusiast who sourced them are found to be victims of an artful forger… and of the allure of a story so incredible, it really was too good to be true.
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