Explanation: In April 1983 David Irving kept not only a diary but a scrappy telephone log, particularly during interesting episodes. The 1983 Telephone Log was among discs salvaged in 2001 from Xerox discs. This fragment covers the period of the famous "Hitler Diaries scandal." In 1982 Munich document expert Dr August Priesack had first hinted at the existence of these items to Mr Irving. In the winter of 1982/3 Mr Irving had offered to put The Sunday Times in contact with Priesack. When he himself saw the items that December, he decided they were fake and warned The Suhday Times. All the greater was his surprise, on being telephoned on April 22, 1983, to learn that the Sunday Times (Magnus Linklater) had gone behind his back and bought rights to the dubious documents. Der Spiegel phoned him and asked what he knew about a press conference announced for April 24 by rival news magazine Stern. ...

April 22nd, 1983

0:15 am Telephoned Acropole, (a) sent them German proofs of Morell

10:20 am Phoned [Heinz] Höhne [Der Spiegel] back: he says Stern is running story about Hitler diaries, has bought them. I told him what I knew.

10:25 am Phoned Mondadori.

10:25 am Phoned Macmillan.

10.. am Hodder's phoned, Newsweek want to speak to me, same matter. Rita Dallas.

10:30 am Telephoned her at (01) 629 8361 ext 45. Told her what I knew. She added the information that Sunday Times has bought the diaries. (!)

.. am Phoned Höhne about this. He said, he knew this, Sunday Times paid £2 million, apparently.

.. am Rita Dallas phoned again, wanting to know details of the inconsistencies. I told her: the 20 July speech, etc.

1:30 pm Magnus Linklater telephoned back. I asked him what he knew of the Sunday Times buying the Hitler diaries, despite my warnings. He: knew nothing, "All done on a much higher level than himself," etc. (Recorded)

1:30 pm tz newspaper telephoned from Munich.

.. pm Langen Müller [Verlag] telephoned. Re Dresden

2:30 pm Reuter phoned from Bonn

3:50 pm Phoned Trevor Roper. No reply.

4:15 pm Jürgen Böhme telephoned. New York Times.

April 23rd, 1983

9:10 am LBC telephoned, be there at 11:45 am.

9:15 am Bild Zeitung telephoned, ticket HNECZT LH 1033 [London to Hamburg, to gate-crash the Stern press conference], but it is not prepaid.

9:30 am Phoned Kendall Globe -- no reply.

10:30 am Sunday People telephoned.

10:46 Phoned Clifton Court: spoke with Pilar Sr., I need cheque and car. Okay

11 am Robert Harris phoned

11:15 am BBCtv News phoned, will call 2:30 pm

11:20 am Simon Walters telephoned.

---

At the Stern Press conference in Hamburg on the morning of April 25, 1983, Mr Irving was the first to get to the microphone and declare the diaries fakes. He was shortly evicted by Stern security. Before returning to London he took part in a ZDF television discussion attended by Peter Koch of Stern, German historians, and (by phone from London) Hugh Trevor-Roper. [Click for the big picture]

---

 

April 26th, 1983

Wiesbaden

9 pm David Kahn phoned from New York (at ZDF studio) and asked some questions for an article for Long Island ... newspaper. (Daily News)

9 pm Ned T Chase of 840 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021, telephoned: would like me to write a book about the Diaries. Had spoken with Max [Becker, literary agent]. I said I was interested, in principal. He said also interested in the FDR.

April 27th, 1983

1:20 pm Macmillan Inc phoned, George Walsh, wanting a summary of my position, which they will put out as a press statement. They are now planning a US tour for me after all [to promote The Secret Diaries of Hitler's Doctor]. I say when I will be available, before or after German trip. Walsh asks for a press statement of my position, and to dictate it to him later today. I: in three hours' time, as I must now see my bank manager.

April 28th, 1983

. pm Telephoned Heinz Höhne, to see Spiegel 3/1966 for suitable title: "Geben Sie mir fünf Zeilen geschriebenes." Also with [Dr Karl] Thöt [Hitler stenographer] quote, Apr 23, 1945.

11:10 pm BBC phoned, want Morell

11:15 am Phoned Höhne again, at home (04102/62616) re above. Then dictated the points to Frau [Gina] Heidemann.

.. pm [Gerd] Heidemann phoned me from Stern office, could not find the quote in Spiegel pages. Then did so, was however disappointed as it did not refer specifically to a diary(!)

April 29th, 1983

Phone calls during the day from many magazines and newspapers including Time, Munich Abendzeitung, Günter Peis who wants to arrange a Club 2, in Vienna; visit from Argentinian journalist.

.. pm Michael Carter of Macmillan Inc phoned: provisionally wants to arrange the Washington and New York interviews May 23-7. Okay by me.

.. pm Kerry Hood telephoned to arrange publicity visits from David Frost and others on Morell

8:30 pm Gerd Heidemann telephoned at great length from Hamburg, while my supper went cold. Eventually I had to break off the talk until tomorrow at the same time, as I wanted to go to the movies with Rim. I told him that the diaries of Morell showed Hitler had Parkinsonism, and the final Hitler diary entry sloped in the way that a Parkinsonism victim's writing slopes down, across the rulings. That had deeply impressed me and I have put it into a Newsnight BBCtv programme to be broadcast Wednesday. Heidemann, in summary, urged me to say it now as Peter Koch is going on television in New York on Monday with his counter attack. In the next Stern editorial he, Koch, reveals how he had overheard me telling Heidemann, "Wann soll ich umkippen? Sofort, oder erst nächste Woche!" Albern.

April 30th, 1983

8:50 am Schweizerische Illustrierte telephoned at length. I ask when they publish, he says Monday, so, after hesitation, I announce to him that I have changed my mind, having seen (a) Heidemann; (b) what seems clear evidence of Parkinsonism in the final diary entry; (c) having decided that the papers come from NS or SS circles in West Germany. I explain they liegen eindeutig in meiner Linie, -- which I explain -- ich lege Wert aber darauf, daß sie auch diese zweite Feuerprobe bestehen. He said Henri Nannen said they had an eidesstattliche Erklärung in the Stern office "nachdem Sie bezahlt worden sind, die Tagebücher zu killen." I tell him of my alberne remarks to Peter Koch after the ZDF broadcast. He: had talked at length with SS General Karl Wolff, who left him with clear impression he was largely behind the source of the diaries.

.. pm Barbara Buck telephoned to arrange dinner for this evening. I said I have a cinema date with Lady Grover. They: then afterwards. We agreed on Osso Bucco, off Sloane Square.

May 1st 1983

9:50 am Lady Grover phoned: fine piece in today's The Observer. I: have not seen it yet, only the Sunday Times.

11:45 am Neil Mackwood phoned to ask if it was true I was suing Sunday Times for my commission on Hitler Diaries. I: not suing, just asking. But told him to hold his hat, and gave him the story of the day: I am now of opinion that on balance the Diaries are genuine. He took full story on this.

.. am Phoned Gerd Heidemann in Hamburg. Out. Told his daughter to tell him I phoned.

.. am Phoned Rolf Hochhuth. He: is going to Club 2 programme in Vienna on Tuesday. I said Günter Peis was trying to arrange that. He: would like me on it, Maser will be on it, etc. I: cannot invite myself.

4:40 pm Gerd Heidemann phoned. He told me many more details of the diaries. He stated that very many entries in latter diaries sloped downwards, as in the April 16, 1945, entry. Reproached me again about the 1935 page I showed -- it is not from the diaries but from the "Aufzeichnungen für das Jahrbuch der Partei." He read out to me Hochhuth's Weltwoche article of April 17-24, in which Hochhuth argues strongly against the diaries. He will be at the ÖTV transmission on Tuesday, suggests I should be there.

5:05 pm Phoned Peis for ÖTV address. No reply. Eventually got it from Hochhuth.

.. pm Sent telegram to Dr Marginter of ÖTV, Argentinienstrasse, Wien, dropping a broad hint. "Restating my previous position that I feared diaries were false I now expect them to be genuine on certain medical evidence. -- David Irving."

11 pm The Times sub editor (female) phoned to check the Mackwood story. I confirmed it.

11:30 pm Phoned Dorit Belkhodjar in Caracas. She had cuttings and would send them or bring them in May or June. Sounded more stable.

May 2nd, 1983

8:50 am Herr Steinecke of Bild Zeitung phoned, wanting now to follow the sources story. I suggest he latch onto Karl Wolff for information on this. He says that I have published a massive attack on Stern in today's Spiegel! I said I do not know its content, and hope Höhne has not overreached himself as I have now decided the diaries are genuine. I was uneasy at finding myself at the head of the entire body of historians, so have changed sides. I explain why: (a) long talks with Heidemann at Wiesbaden and over last few days, in which he has told me more of the diaries' content in private; (b) realization that Heidemann has had them for three or four years, and was dropping hints to me; (c) the evidence of Parkinson's Disease in final entries, which a forger could hardly know of; (d) I add that of course several objections remain: Heidemann told me that there were 15 Kladden after July 20, 1944, but that Hitler complained in several entries of the pain of writing the entries.

9:30 am Schindelback of Bild Zeitung phoned.

10 am Phoned Otto Günsche. Knows nothing. Schwägermann lived in Munich, but was active for BND. (Perhaps BND was the source?)

.. NDR phoned. Sommer 1980, Stern had approached August Priesack. Interested in his "Fund."

.. am Two telephone calls from female Dr Marginter of Vienna, the second one inviting me to Club 2 programme tomorrow evening, 10 pm. Okay.

11:30 am Profil magazine phoned from Vienna.

12 DSZ Verlag phoned. Nichts neues?

12:05 pm Phoned Gerd Heidemann. Times has it.

12:10 pm Phoned Hochhuth.

7:10 pm Phoned Macmillan Ltd.

8:50 pm Phoned Macmillan Inc. Michael Carter. Confirmed that the media week in United States will be May 23-7.

8:55 pm Haskemeier of Radio Bremen will call 10-11 am tomorrow for tape interview.

.. (WHEN?) Max Becker. $4500. Village Voice.

May 3rd, 1983

3:55 am Eulalia Papineau telephoned from California, collect. Gossipped. Talks about me being her agent in N.Y. for toothpaste commercials. I was rather confused, because of the hour. Said I would call back Wednesday (tomorrow?)

9:12 am Phoned Vallint re air ticket to Vienna. BA 14:45 to 17:50, return Austrian airline 08 arr 9:25 am.

9:30 am Phoned Sidgwick's to change today's interviews. Done.

11:20 am Associated Press phoned. Long talk, suggest I'm a cynic to have changed my mind on the diaries.

May 4th, 1983

.. pm Max phoned, has sold part of Morell

8 pm George Walsh phoned, wants my latest position on the Diaries.

A LOT OF JUNE ENTRIES WERE LOST IN AN ERROR DJCI-Jun 29, 1983

• Introduction: "The Hitler Diaries"
• About David Irving: "Do You Want Total Truth?"
• Aftermath: David Irving called by the German Government to give evidence as an historian at the trial of the forgers Heidemann and Kujau in August 1984. Newspaper reports