The Hitler Diaries

APR 22 1983

The German magazine Stern announced it had acquired sixty volumes of Adolf Hitler's private diaries, paying 9.3 million Deutsche Marks through the reporter Gerd Heidemann. The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper authenticated them in The Times on 23 April, then reversed himself at a press conference two days later. Forensic analysis on 6 May found modern ink, paper and polyester bindings postdating 1953. The forger Konrad Kujau and Heidemann were both jailed in 1985.