7 May 1983: The Sunday Times paid some of the £250,000 for publishing rights, and was about to begin serialising the diaries

The Sunday Times and Stern magazine have called off serialisation of the so-called Hitler Diaries after the West German Government declaration yesterday that a sample it had tested was counterfeit.

The Bonn Minister of the interior, Mr Friedrich Zimmermann, said that three volumes of the alleged diaries sent to the Federal Archive, in Koblenz, for checking had been shown to be forgeries, made with post-war materials. The archive had called in federal forensic and standard institute experts to test the papers.

A Sunday Times spokesman said: “The Sunday Times accepts the report of the German archivists that the volumes they have examined contain materials that demonstrate the diaries are not authentic. In view of this, the Sunday Times will not go ahead with publication.”

Mr Henri Nannen, the publisher of Stern magazine, of Hamburg, which claimed to have discovered the diaries, said they would stop publication of the diaries. “There won’t be a single word about these diaries in the next issue (of Stern magazine),” he said. The magazine would do all it could to clear up the reasons behind the apparent forgery, he added.

Lord Dacre, better known as Hugh Trevor-Roper, the historian and director of Times Newspapers, who originally said that the diaries were authentic and then backtracked, commented last night: “I don’t want to blame anyone. It is my fault.



“I should have refused to give an opinion so soon. I have been convinced for some time that they are forgeries.”

Asked whether he would stay on the Times Newspapers board, Lord Dacre said he did not know. He hoped the company would not have to pay for the diaries, which it had agreed to buy from Stern, which published a first extract on Thursday, for £250,000.

In his statement for News Corporation, which owns Times Newspapers, Mr Arthur Brittenden, director of corporate relations, went on to say: “In the course of the last few days two volumes of the diaries have been brought to the Sunday Times office from Hamburg so that independent examination can be conducted by experts in this country.

“This examination will proceed and the experts’ opinion will be published. The decision to purchase rights to the diaries was taken after the very positive indications of their authenticity by Lord Dacre, and the assurances received from Stern magazine.”

The Sunday Times was to have started serialisation tomorrow.

Mr Brittenden said that half the £250,000 agreed for the British and Commonwealth rights had already been paid to Stern. “There will be no further payments,” he said. He did not know if there was an indemnity clause in the contract for repayment of money if the diaries were proved to be fakes.

“I don’t know what is in the contract, but we will certainly seek to recover all the payment we have made.”

Few West Germans were surprised, and many were relieved, when the Government said that the so-called diaries had been found to be forged. This promised an end to the 14-day historical mystery-thriller, in which experts changed their minds, Jewish leaders were horrified at an apparent attempt to white-wash Hitler.

Mr Zimmerman said that the paper, ink and the string of the “personal” seals on the three volumes examined had all been found to date from after the second world war. “Historical research also shows Hitler could not have written the texts.”