Reporter in forged Hitler ‘diaries’ case arrested

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 1

Reporter in forged Hitler ‘diaries’ case arrested

NZPA-Reuter Hamburg Gerd Heidemann, the reporter who bought the forged Hitler “diaries” for “Stern” magazine, has been arrested and the Stuttgart dealer who supplied them has confessed to forging them, a Hamburg prosecutor, Mr Peter Beck, said yesterday.

Mr Beck said Heidemann had been arrested on suspicion of 'fraud and withholding information after Konrad Kujau’s confession. He was taken to police headquarters after the police had searched his flat once again.

Kujau was arrested earlier this month for supplying the forged diaries to the West German news magazine. The dealer in Nazi memorabilia voluntarily surrendered to the police at a Bavarian border post on May 14 after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

“Stern” said Kujau sold the diaries to Heidemann for $5.6 million. Kujau disappeared from his home the day after experts declared the 60 volumes to be recent forgeries. At first, he admitted supplying most of the volumes to “Stern” but said he had believed them to be genuine.

He issued a statement through his lawyer saying he could neither read nor write Old German script, in which the entries were written.

Last week, “Stern” alleged Kujau had probably forged the material himself. Mr Beck declined to give any detailed information on Kujau’s confession. Heidemann has been extensively questioned by the prosecutor during the last two weeks and his home has been subjected to police searches, but he had remained at liberty until now. “Stern” magazine, which sacked Heidemann, filed a lawsuit for fraud against him on May 9. This was three days after the Federal Archive Office declared the diaries “blatant, grotesque and superficial forgeries.” Heidemann had said the papers were retrieved from the wreckage of a plane which crashed in what is now East Germany while on a flight from besieged Berlin late in World War 11. He refused to disclose his source for the diaries before they were exposed as forgeries.

“Stern” heralded the diaries as a major publishing scoop when it announced them on April 25. The scoop turned sour after many international historians were sceptical about the authenticity of the supposed diaries. In addition to causing “Stern” great financial expense, the scandal has severely damaged the magazine’s prestige and led to a sit-in by disgruntled staff at its offices.