Secret Diary
How would you feel when you find something sensational happening in the country you had recently visited?
That is exactly what happened to me.
It was the news concerning Kujau, who had fled from East Germany
and eventually settled in Stuttgart, the city where I came to pick up
my car to start my travel.
He had made a sale, one of the greatest historical buys of the 20th century: Sixty-two handwritten volumes of a secret diary kept by Adolf Hitler!
The person had established his credibility earlier, by selling Nazi memorabilia such as paintings of and duly signed by Hitler during his early years in Austria.
Der Stern, the German magazine, had paid millions of dollars to gain the exclusive rights to it, hoping to make big money by selling it later on to the news media.
Kujau had sold his first "Hitler Diary" to a collector in 1978.
He was contacted by Gerd Heidemann, a journalist, in 1980 after he had learned about the diaries.
Kujau told him that the diaries were in the possession of his brother, whom he described as a General in the East German army.
He sold the remaining 61 volumes of the secret diary to Heidemann for DM 2.5 million.
Heidemann collected DM 9 million from his employers at Stern, for the purchase made by him for the magazine.
Stern had paid the huge amount, hoping to make a fortune on the reprint rights.
The global media jumped on the story. Newsweek, ParisMatch and London's Sunday Times were among many to make bids for reprint rights to all or part of the diaries.
However, the diaries were proven to be fake when published by Stern in 1983 with the head cover showing one of the black bound volumes, and stating: "Hitler's Diary Discovered."
Kujau and Heidemann were arrested and charged.
Both were convicted: Kujau sentenced to four and a half years for forgery and his wife to one year as an accomplice.
Heidemann was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 4 years 8 months.
The judge had strictures against the owners and editors of Der Stern, for being too ready to believe that they had scooped all the global news organizations by purchasing the secret diary.
