Documents on Real History

      

[] Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech      [] Alphabetical index (text)

Quick navigation

Letters to David Irving on this Website

 

Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives, and invite open debate.

Korham Gulgun of London inquires, Tuesday, December 21, 2004, about allegations that Mr Irving steals and fakes documents; the allegations are on a Peter Stahl website

typewriter

Sticky-fingers? Whose?

I CAME across the following article on the internet while searching for material regarding your frequent legal actions:

"In 1996, Irving attempted to sell a number of valuable papers from this era to Charles Hamilton, New York-based autograph expert and dealer. Hamilton became suspicious of the origins of these documents and contacted a number of archives. Discovering that most of them had been stolen, Hamilton informed various authorities both in Germany and England. An article appearing in a Toronto, Canada, paper of November 9, 1996 was headed: AUTHOR'S LONDON HOME RAIDED, bylined by Canadian Press and covered a raid conducted by British police at the London apartment of David Irving wherefrom a large number of documents allegedly stolen from British, American and German archives were recovered.

It is also interesting to note that the raid also uncovered a "considerable quantity of documents with Nazi letterheads, a folder containing what appears to be Adolf Hitler's personal note paper, 1940's-era German typewriters, Nazi document stamps and seals and examples of original signatures of prominent Nazi officials." Perhaps this latter information indicates the source of the oft-repeated comments from outraged, legitimate historians that if Irving can't find a supporting document, he makes one."

Is this story true? And if so, I would be interested to hear your comments.

Korham Gulgun
London

 Radical's Diary: Peter Stahl sets up a "Gregory Douglas" website

Free download of David Irving's books
Bookmark the download page to find the latest new free books


David Irving

David Irving comments

I WOULD be very interested to know in precisely which Toronto newspaper this "article" appeared, if it ever did. I just hope it is published or repeated one day in the mainstream media. Charles Hamilton would also confirm how untrue it is.

The exact opposite is the case. In 1977, when visiting a well known American historian, I noticed cartloads of original files from the National Archives in his home. I quietly tipped off the American authorities, and they, ahem, retrieved the files.

A few years later, visiting another well known American historian, I made precisely the same discovery, and again, the documents were recovered.

In those days document security at the National Archives was somewhat looser than it is now.

More recently, a British document dealer offered me a file of original SS papers on the SS Dr Ernst Grawitz; since I had had that same file in my hands only a few months earlier, properly issued to me as a researcher at the high-security Berlin Document Center, controlled by the US Mission in Berlin, I tipped off the German archive authorities and the BDC that somebody was illegally "selling off the family silver," so to speak.

A police action followed. Hermann Göring's last letters were shortly found being offered for sale in a Berlin Flohmarkt. Fortunately, I had excellent photographic copies of them, made by the BDC for my Göring biography: the director, the BDC photographic laboratory, and I were the only people who knew they existed.

The culprit was tracked down and caught -- he was the American assistant director of the BDC -- but not before he had secretly sold off tens of thousands of irreplaceable original documents onto the world auction market. In those days I was persona grata in Germany, and the German press mentioned my part in the arrest of the culprits.

Nowadays, it seems they stoop to dirty tricks and circulate, via the Internet of course, somewhat different stories about me.


Here are the links: [omitted here, but one URL contains the name "Gregory Douglas"]

I note you make no mention of the typewriter, letterheads and document stamps in your reply. In light of the articles I would be interested to know how whether there is any truth in you having these in your possession. I have seen another site (http://www.thirdreich.ca/) which offers to produce custom documents. I ask only because you often unearth 'new' original documents where others do not. In the context of the two articles it would it would be a justifiable criticism if you have the materials to create them yourself where required.

I look forward to your reply.

Korham Gulgun
London


David IrvingDavid Irving further comments

I DONT know what your interest in this is. I can assure you I have no letterheads, typewriters, or rubber stamps of that era. Gregory Douglas (see that URL) is however better known as Peter Stahl, a convicted counterfeiter and forger, who manufactured the Heinrich Müller documents which he has published as a book. See my dossier on him at

http://www.fpp.co.uk/docs/Irving/Peter_Stahl/index.html

from which you can guess the reasons for his hatred of me. The dossier goes back over twenty years. He does not like being exposed. Even Peter Stahl is not his real name. Stahl purchased a German Third Reich typewriter with which he manufactured the fake documents. I have seen the purchase receipt of the firm he bought it from. I ignore him, and you might like to also.

© Focal Point 2004 David Irving