Original subtitles

To Dr. Joseph Henker, Federal Archive Koblenz.

Dear Dr. Henker, I enclose three blank diary

pages and material from Geert Heidemann's archive.

It is urgent we have a forensic report on the age of the paper.

Schilder Helen speaking.

Geert, thank Christ it's you.

That Pratt hensman is impossible to deal with.

Arrogant and fatter the bastard.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that, Rupert.

I've just been in New York putting the finishing touches to our deal with Newsweek.

That's exactly why I'm ringing you.

Look, the two of us can sort this out together.

We've come up with a revised offer.

3.75 million dollars for the whole package.

I see.

Well, um, that certainly does put a different complexion on things.

What are those goddamn Germans up to?

Murdoch's back in the game.

They want another meeting in Hamburg.

I'll tell you something.

I feel like taking the stuff they've shown us and printing it without a deal.

I bet Hitler's public domain.

Jesus, that would teach those treacherous shits a lesson in manners.

That's nice.

Oh, you photographed so well.

Connie isn't good photogenic.

He's going to be a worldwide star when this film is shown on television.

I just hope it doesn't interfere with my writing.

Yes, well, I wouldn't know anything about stardom.

I just risked my life and my brother's life to secure the diaries.

Of course.

Your contribution was immensely important.

Who's this?

Um, oh, Henke, Joseph Henke.

And that was the day the Federal Archive agreed to

give Gerd all rights in the diaries for ten years.

Terribly useful, I think.

I'm hoping to set them up as a TV miniseries.

Oh.

Yeah.

It's Murdoch.

He's on his way up.

I'll play Mr. Nice Guy, then we'll bring in Hensman for the kill.

Same drill for the Newsweek lot.

And, uh, what time is their plane view?

Three.

Knows where the bid will be by five, eh?

Through the roof, I suspect.

Right.

Rupert.

Good.

You know CRB?

He's, uh, brought some backup for the nitty gritty.

Oh, the rest of these guys are with Mr. Edmiston.

Uh, have you two met?

No.

Uh, Gert Schilder Hillen, Mark Edmiston, uh, President of Newsweek.

We thought it'd save everybody a lot of time if we coordinated our efforts.

Well, let's get started.

It's going to be a long day.

Well, I'm sorry, I disagree.

I think this section is the only section that's correct to go with.

So do I?

Well, look, the American public doesn't give a

damn about Rudolf Hess' peace mission to Britain.

They want to know about the murder of the Jews.

The whole series should begin with the Holocaust.

I agree with Mark.

But the Holocaust has not been transcribed yet.

Only the Hess section has been properly checked.

The publication is less than a month away.

We must publish in chronological order.

Which enables all of us to tease out the

diaries as long as possible, in 30 installments.

Look, the whole bloody thing is only 50,000 words.

You're trying to slice a salami extremely thin.

Okay.

Divide it up like this, yes?

Yes.

Okay.

And now about the money.

Well, I think that we should reconvene tomorrow.

No, no, no, no.

We must straighten this out tonight.

I really think the morning would be better.

You're not planning to fix the price on your own, are you, Gerd?

Ah, very well.

What is your combined offer?

We don't blame you for all the foul ups.

So, uh, we don't intend to take advantage of

our, let's face it, rather strong position.

The original offer stays on the table.

3.75 million dollars.

Well, um, actually, we no longer think that's enough.

We would like 4.25 million.

I think I over-poked my hand.

I gather Newsweek wouldn't even return your calls.

I know.

We're grateful you'd see us.

Frankly, I always wanted to deal with you anyway.

I'm profoundly moved.

Let's see if we can't salvage something from the wreckage.

Look, I've come back to a storm of rumors.

Is it true Murdoch's going to bother hit the diaries?

Why, but me?

Frag, you do edit the Sunday Times.

But I'm not part of the Murdoch inner circle.

I think that decimal count is too low for him.

I've heard the same story.

I've also heard the Germans behaving like absolute twats.

Oh, Rupert's got the upper hand now.

I think it's the same diary as David Irving told us about last autumn.

I don't think so.

Well, Rupert's starlets have apparently been authenticated by Hugh Trevor Roper.

We must be very cautious.

I'm one of the few reporters left who remembers the Mussolini Diaries fiasco of 68.

What a bath Lord Thompson took on that.

Oh, Glidemore.

Now that isn't... Do you think I ought to write a memorandum?

Frankly, it's not a great interest in me one at other.

I gather from my position on the fringe of

decision-making, they are to run in the Daily Times.

If the potato is hot, class Douglas Hume's fingers will be burned, not mine.

There never was a food allegia to top Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.

One million, two hundred thousand dollars.

Payable over two years.

May we discuss this?

No.

We accept.

You drive a hard bargain, girl.

I'll have the contracts drawn up.

We must proceed with great caution.

The crux of the matter is that secrecy and speed work for the con man.

Excellent, Hugh.

Hamburg on Thursday.

Someone will be there to meet you.

They want to tape you for their video.

Yes.

Yes, it's going to be the biggest launch in

European publishing history, maybe the world.

One moment, Hugh.

What is it, Philip?

I'd like you to read this, Charles.

Life is a bit frantic at the moment.

It is rather urgent.

For the times.

Right.

Leave it there, and I'll get to it ASAP.

Yes.

Sorry, Hugh, that was just Philip Knightley with something urgent.

It's always something urgent, isn't it?

Yes.

Look, ring me as soon as you get back.

I long to know more about the mysterious Heidemann.

Oh, marvellous.

Hugh, the first transcripts have just arrived.

Yes.

This is a quite momentous day.

And now the goddamn business side is out of the way,

we can finally concentrate on the Hitler edition.

It'll be the biggest in the magazine's history.

356 pages, with a 48-page supplement entirely devoted to the diaries,

half in colour.

And the print run will be increased to 2.3 million copies.

The results of the diary tests are similar to the archive results.

This stern is in for an extremely unpleasant shock.

Lord Dacre.

Ah, you must be the chauffeur.

No, I am Gerd Heidemann.

Oh, I see.

This is a great honour.

Right.

Um, what?

I bought these from Carl Wolf.

Great friend of mine.

SS Tibetan file.

Researching the Aryan bloodlines.

My Mussolini section.

My Idi Amin area.

He tried to buy Goering's yacht from me.

The Amin's underpants.

You have what might be called a penchant for dictators.

Ah, I'm fascinated by men who are powerful enough to bring order out of chaos.

The most significant part of my archive came from my incredible source.

Now, this is the latest photograph of Marty.

Marty?

Borman.

He's a little young to be Borman, isn't he?

I assure you, Martin Borman is in excellent shape.

Lives in Switzerland.

Now.

Someday soon, I hope to have the honour of interviewing him.

I look forward to that very much.

Now, I want to make my entire collection available to the public.

Is that wise?

That's imperative.

This is the man that dominated 20th century history.

I tried to buy Hitler's parental home.

To create a Hitler museum.

I told the Burgermeister it would not only benefit

posterity, but the tourist trade of Leonding.

What did the Burgermeister say?

Turned us down.

What a shame.

Professor.

As a token of my great esteem for you, I made

a photocopy of one of my greatest treasures.

A love letter written by Hitler in 1908.

Here, for you.

Mr. Heidemann, this is all...

fascinating, but... I'd like to wash my hands before the interview.

Could we please get out of here?

You're not flustered by all this?

I have been filmed before.

How do you find Heidemann?

Off the record.

In the short time I spent with him, I felt...

distaste, disbelief... and an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia.

He is odd, isn't he?

Odd?

I would have said close to barking mad.

Doesn't that put a cloud over the diaries?

Oh, quite the opposite.

I find him unstable and unreliable in the space of half an hour.

Now, Stern, I've known what he's like for... thirty years.

Ergo, they must have been all the more careful in checking his story.

Yes.

So there is no doubt in your mind these diaries are genuine?

No doubt at all.

Thank you very much, Lord Dacre.

Oh, morning, Charles.

I've just had a call from Shoulder Hillen.

Oh, Christ, what now?

Well, it seems that when they thought the diaries were going to Newsweek,

they gave Broils and Parker access to the first eight articles.

You can't be serious.

Well, of course, now they're afraid Newsweek is just going to rip them off.

This isn't a case of Prussian paranoia.

It's certainly what I would do if I were Newsweek.

We're putting publication forward.

Well, they're going public on Friday, and they're putting Stern out on Monday.

So I think we'd better run the first instalment on

Sunday with a piece in Saturday's Times by Trevor Roper.

You call the master in Cambridge, and I'll terrorize Frank Giles.

Hello, Frank.

And, in fact, we must envisage him every night after he'd

apparently gone to bed sitting down to write his daily record.

If Hitler, as he said in 1942, had long ago found writing by hand a great

effort, that may be not so much because he was out of

practice as because he already suffered from writer's cramp.

Oh, very good.

Very, very good.

Agreeing to run the diaries in the Sunday Times without letting our own journalists

make independent checks is completely irresponsible.

You try arguing with Murdoch.

It's not our job to argue with Murdoch.

It's your job.

Have you read Trevor Roper?

There weren't just 60 diaries at Zurich.

There was a complete coherent archive covering 35 years.

The archive coheres as a whole.

And the diaries are an integral part of it.

This is the internal evidence of authenticity.

And that man was an intelligence officer in the war.

Frank, one man's opinion isn't enough.

Have you forgotten the Mussolini diaries fiasco?

I know, I know, but I don't want to hear about all that.

The deal's been signed.

And we are going to have to do it.

The first extract will appear on Monday.

When the diaries have properly evaluated the biography of the dictator and with it

the history of the Nazi state will have to be written in large part in you.

And for this great find, we have this man to thank.

Devious.

And future generations will of course... Oh, keep still!

...to remember the name Gerd Heidelberg.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was stern publisher Henry Nannan with a literally world-shaking announcement.

Dr. Joseph Henker, Federal Archive.

Hello, Dr. Henker.

I'm afraid I have slightly worried news for you.

I've just received the results of Arnold Rents' forensic analysis.

The diary pages did not contain paper whiteness.

They might be the right period.

That's only might!

They say the rest of the archive material I sent are definitely fake.

After all, it's the diaries that matter.

So the rest of the material didn't necessarily come from the Bernersdorf crash.

No, no, no, no, no.

The implications are frightening.

If the archives are fake, so are the diaries.

Look!

Look!

Two of the most distinguished historians in the

world have said that those diaries are genuine.

I do not intend to let Arnold Rents block the

biggest syndication deal in journalistic history.

Nannan's press release will inevitably bring

a worldwide tidal wave of skepticism upon us.

We are going to be attacked by every academic

and newspaper on the face of the planet.

The jackals will gather here in droves on Monday for the launch.

We must be absolutely confident the story is watertight.

If we have any doubts at all, we must pull out now.

What do you want me to do?

There is only one way to be sure.

Gerd Heinemann must be made to divulge the name of his source.

No, Gerd, I will not reveal my source.

Please, Gerd, just write down the full story of how you obtained the diaries.

Only I will see it.

Then it will be locked away in the company's safe.

But when I tracked him down, my source didn't want to sell.

He feared for his brother, his wife, and himself.

Do you know what I did?

I swore to him, on my mother's life, that I would never, never reveal his identity.

Do you understand the solemnity of that vow?

Yes.

I, myself, am a son.

The source is okay.

You must trust Heinemann.

He's got a gun.

Could you just get him out, please?

Hello, baby.

I'm making everybody here very unhappy.

Good.

Because I'm unhappy.

Heidemann.

The great, good Heidemann.

I tell you.

Heidemann's a cockerel.

He's attacked.

One day, Maria.

One day, the world will know who the true genius is.

Who delivered their diaries into the world.

Who?

Who, genius!

Christ!

Don't die.

Don't die!

Don't die!

Don't die.

Hugh?

Alexandra, something isn't right.

I don't understand.

It's the wording of this letter.

What letter?

The letter Heidemann gave me.

A love letter from the young Hitler to a girl.

It's just that... It's just what?

I can't put my finger on it, but the wording of the letter is just too close to

this book, Kubitschek's account of the young adult.

It's as if the letter's been copied from the book.

And why is the letter with Hitler's papers?

He posted it to the girl.

It couldn't be with his papers.

Oh, my God, Alexandra.

I think this is a forgery.

If this is forged, then perhaps the entire archive is forged.

If the archive is forged...

It's a very successful headline.

Hello, darling.

It's summertime.

Look, Lady Catherine.

Yes?

It's sensational.

I'll never see another front page like that as long as you live.

Oh!

Oh, it's absolutely fantastic!

I think I'll ring Hugh Trevor Ripper.

Good idea, Frank.

There's bound to be a lot of carping criticism from our rivals.

Use the man to counter the arguments.

Hugh?

Frank Giles.

Very well, thank you.

What we'd like you is a quiet, scholarly, detailed piece, rebutting any attacks.

Naturally, one has doubts.

Hmm?

Well, of course, there are no certainties in this life.

But these doubts aren't strong enough to make

you do a complete 180 degree turn on that.

Oh, I see you are doing a 180 degree turn.

Look, Hugh, I think I'd better ring you back later.

Hugh thinks the diaries may be forgeries.

Better talk to Murdoch in New York.

Frank.

Ring Hugh back.

He mustn't make his doubts public at the stern press conference.

Say he can reveal them exclusively in next week's paper.

Frank.

I think you're being just marvellous.

But there's no actual proof they are fakes.

I don't want you to remake the paper.

F*** Dacre.

Publish!

David Irving says the diaries are deeply flawed.

I wouldn't be going to Hamburg if I didn't leave the diaries at general.

Are you 100% sure of that?

Don't put the sentence point on my beliefs.

There are problems, but I'm convinced every problem has an answer.

All right, fellas.

Come on, give us a break.

Right.

Please tell me again.

How did the diaries come into Stern's possession?

The diaries were brought out of the East by a former

Wehrmacht officer currently living in West Germany.

The other material was delivered to me in

Hamburg by a group of peasants from Bernersdorf.

This archive material, we now accept, may not be genuine.

But the diaries are certainly authentic.

The story I was first told indicated one plane

crash, one salvaged cargo and one supplier.

Well, it, um, it was necessary to deflect the truth in order to protect my supplier.

Mr. Heidemann, when I was in Zurich, Peter Koch

told me the supplier came from East Germany.

That was why his identity could not be disclosed.

Just last week, you told me the Wehrmacht officer lived in

Switzerland and could not be identified for tax reasons.

Now you tell me he lives in West Germany and only

supplied the diaries and not the additional material.

So, let's start again, shall we?

How did the diaries come into Stern's possession?

Mr. Heidemann, can you give me any reason why I should

believe in the existence of this Wehrmacht officer?

No.

Why should I?

Well, why should I believe?

And why should I publicly authenticate the diaries at tomorrow's press conference?

I have had quite enough of this.

You are behaving exactly like an officer of the British Secret Service.

This is not 1945.

They are real.

They are real.

Of course they are.

And now, the theme is really good.

A long time, it's very nice.

It's a very great project.

When the nation has sought to defeat us.

In this world, we are yet.

Thank you for being here today, ladies and gentlemen.

The interest in this edition of our magazine

is both unprecedented and completely justified.

In a moment, we will be showing you a program

describing in detail how this amazing find came about.

But first, I want to say publicly, I am 100% convinced

Hitler wrote every single word in those books.

We spend a lot of money on those diaries, but when it comes to informing the reader,

nothing is too expensive.

On the 20th of April, 1945, a Junkers carrying the effects

of Adolf Hitler craft here in the Heidenholz forest.

These are the graves of the crew.

And now began a race against time.

With the invaluable assistance of Thomas Volker, Heidemann

embarked on a year-long search for the source of the diaries.

Three handwriting experts have already authenticated the contents.

And the eminent British historian and Hitler expert, Hugh Traveroper,

has also examined the diaries.

So there is no doubt in your mind these diaries are genuine?

No doubt at all.

Come on, fellas.

Hold on.

Please stand back.

Please don't touch the...

No, no, no.

Hold on.

Don't touch the... Come on, fellas.

Just hold on.

Just hold on.

I hold them up.

You can see.

Just wait a minute.

Take your pictures.

Come on, fellas.

All right.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is your turn to ask questions of us.

Yes?

My question is for Professor Trevor Roper.

The announcement of the diaries and the initial excerpts

have been greeted with almost universal derision.

Is your position the same as when you spoke with Miss

Dickman and when you wrote your article for the Times?

As a historian, I regret that the normal method of historical verification has,

understandably perhaps, to some extent, been

sacrificed to the requirements of a journalistic scoop.

I am the British historian, David Irving.

Now, I may not have a doctorate or a professorship or even the title Lord,

but I believe I have a reputation in Germany nevertheless.

I demand to know how Hitler could have written of the July bomb plot in his

diaries when your own film just showed him meeting Mussolini a few hours after the

explosion and having to shake hands with his left hand.

Thank you, Mr Irving.

You've made your point.

Any more questions, please?

A few months ago, I was shown photocopies of

writers from a collection of obvious forgeries.

Please, please.

Luckily, I made copies of the copies because

these diaries are part of the same collection.

Mr Irving could ask Westerns to not make steepness.

Any more questions?

Any more questions?

I challenge them to tell us if they have tested the diaries, Inc.

for his age.

defence of SpaceOOD

I would like to agree with the chief rabbi of Great Britain, who said.

As a human being, victim and survivor of history's most monstrous tyranny,

I protest vehemently against the publication of the so-called Hitler diaries.

Whether they are authentic or not is quite immaterial to the outrage of resurrecting

the incarnation of evil and his propaganda, rehabilitating him for a

generation which knew not this master gangster.

Hailing this find as the biggest discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls is a sacrilege

which only compounds the insult to millions

who perished and suffered under this tyranny.

Sanctimonious bullshit.

Comrade, I have just sent nine different

volumes to be given definitive forensic tests.

They will be examined by the Federal Archive at Koblenz,

the laboratory in Berlin, and by the Wiesbaden police.

Sometime next week, there will be no doubt about their authenticity.

In the meantime, we have a magazine to get out.

Let's hope that the second instalment will be even more sizzling than the first.

Listen, mate, it's the only thing people are

talking about right now in Britain and America.

They got hundreds of thousands of new readers in the last week.

They all seem incredibly confident about winning the war.

Mind you, I suppose most of the people in the

bunker thought that right up until the end.

We can't lose whichever way it goes.

I mean, we've got new readers.

And if the diaries are rubbish,

the Hitler thing is yesterday's news.

The last diaries.

There's all the fusters being there.

I wasn't sure you'd still want them.

Of course I want them.

The set wouldn't have been complete.

Posterity would have been cheated.

This is wonderful.

Snaps?

Surely.

So, what I thought was this.

Gina and I have seen these two magnificent houses in Almeria.

They're absolutely fantastic.

We'll buy one.

You and Edith buy the other.

We'll build a tunnel between the two of them.

Join together both our collections.

We'd have the biggest Hitler archive in the world.

What do you say?

Kurt?

We've had a great adventure together.

But now, I think, it's time we went our separate ways.

You will phone me, won't you?

Huh?

You will phone.

If the music to Veal and the blacksmith ever turns up.

You'll be the first to know.

Goodbye, guys.

Come on.

Goodbye.

You...

Yes?

The Federal Archive report is in.

It didn't go our way.

The paper is post-war.

The notebooks themselves appear to have been bought at Woolworths.

And the so-called A.H.

Seal, actually plastic, imported from Hong Kong.

I think it's time to take that holiday that we've been talking about for so long.

And the so-called A.H.

Seal, actually plastic, imported from Hong Kong.

This is crazy.

I'm sick and tired of all this... If the office calls, tell them I've gone out.

Where?

I'm going to bring back irrefutable evidence that

those diaries came from the Bernersdorf plane crash.

This is my friend, Maria Mordic.

Maria?

Edith.

We're going to be staying with Maria's parents in Austria.

I thought it was that time you two met.

I think you're going to like each other.

Um, yes, we now accept that the diaries are, in fact, forgeries.

We're launching a full in-house investigation into the

chain of events which led to such a regrettable incident.

Now, don't apologize, you fool.

God.

I've got the proof now.

I've got the proof!

Where did you think all that money was coming from?

I don't know.

Advances?

Commissions?

Was there ever a supplier or was Heidemann forging the diaries all along, huh?

Of course he wasn't.

I met him and his wife.

Who was Heidemann's source?

I can't tell you his name.

You'll have to ask Gerd.

You can't ask Gerd because you say he's in East Germany.

Maybe he's asked for political asylum.

Hello, Gerd.

We're gonna be okay.

We're gonna be okay.

I've got the proof.

I went back to Bernersdorf.

I found a young peasant whose father had been

at the scene of the Gunnel Finger plane crash.

He'd taken the door.

He'd used it to prop up his garden shed.

They're gonna have to believe us now.

This is proof that there was a plane crash.

We won.

Gerd, we won, we won.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh.

Here's the icing on the cake.

I've, um...

I've written to Marty Borman.

Switzerland.

Yeah.

I've asked him to come out of hiding.

He's going to authenticate the diaries.

They're gonna have to believe Martin Borman, aren't they?

Hmm?

Sit down, Gerd.

I want

you to take a deep breath.

The plane door is very useful.

And if Borman turns up, certainly we'll all be laughing.

But in the meantime, what we have to have, and no arguments...

...is the name of the man supplying the diaries.

Ah...

Ah... Ah, his name is, um...

Conrad Fisher.

A fisher came from Austria and gave himself up yesterday.

Only his real name's Kuya, apparently.

Conrad Kuya.

Long series of arrests when he was younger.

Spent time in Stanheim prison.

Ran a cleaning company until he discovered the memorabilia market...

...and this amazing, uh...

Talent.

I guess you'd have to call it a talent, wouldn't you?

They do exist, Leon.

They do exist.

I didn't find them this time.

I met an evil man.

Evil.

But I will find them.

Someday.

I will.

You bastard!

You bastard!

You bastard!

You lied to me!

You fraud everything!

You bastard!

And now, two months later, what do you make of it all?

Well, I made about 17,000 pounds, which pleased my bank manager enormously.

Hugh Trevor Roper, you came out of the affair not quite as well.

There is a limerick circulating around Cambridge.

There once was a fellow called Dacre, who was God in his own little acre.

But in the matter of diaries, he was quite

ultraviaries and unable to spot an old faker.

I mean, what precisely happened to you in Zurich?

Well, I've pondered a great deal on it, as you may imagine.

And it comes down to this.

I thought the stern people were honourable.

So I took their bona fides as a dartum.

I see.

How did Frank come in?

Sit down.

Now, Frank, this has got nothing to do with the diaries disaster.

But I think the board would feel a lot happier if we kind of kicked you upstairs,

made you editor emeritus.

What does that mean, Frank?

Well, the E means you're out.

And emeritus means you deserve it.

When the judge sentenced Heidemann and Kuyao, he said

he thought Stern should have been in the dock as well.

What would you say to that?

Well, I'd say I disagree.

The Hitler diaries affair did have a traumatic effect upon Stern.

You lost revenue, circulation, respect.

Well, that was then.

This is now.

We've, uh, bounced back.

With the new cast of characters.

Dr. Hemsman is a professor in Munster.

Wilfred Saul runs a small publishing company.

Thomas Walter left Hamburg.

Leo Pesch works for Vogue.

Dr. Manfred Fisher is the head of Dornier Aircraft Company.

Henry and Allen is retired, and Peter Koch is unemployed.

Yes.

But you are still managing director of Gruner and Jahr.

Yeah.

You must be a very good manager indeed.

Yeah.

Yes, I must be.

Well, I'd say it's a lot more rewarding than forging lunch and vouchers.

I first got the idea... when I was copying out Hitler's appointments... just to

practice the handwriting, you know... And suddenly, I looked... I created a diary.

But I never would have had the courage to go through with it... until I met Hans

Bauer at a party... and he told me about Operation Seraglio... and the plane crash.

..

and that lent the whole thing credibility.

Hey, Carney.

Do Hitler.

How much?

25 bucks.

One thing I never understood.

Why didn't you give the score of Wieland the Blacksmith to Heidemann?

He would have paid you anything for it.

True.

But I can't write a note of music.

Fly with me, Gondela.

No, he's not.

He'd be realized.

True.

True.

This is the first sentence.

This is the first sentence.