A Radical’s Diary (April 2009)

Documents on the Only last year a German Government commission of not just conformist but kow-towing, line-toeing, bowing-and-scraping historians agreed that the death roll in the two hour man-made 1945 holocaust in Dresden was far lower, ‘only 25,000’ (or even less). [ Previous Radical’s Diary ] April 16, 2009 (Thursday) Windsor (England) JOHN the gardener very proudly displays the large mole he has killed with his fork this morning.

It has thrown up nine large molehills on the main lawn just this last week. Being a townie, I can’t help feeling sorry for the wretched animal. Jeremy Davies of BBC Wales phones about Arthur K, and I send him my 1993 diary entry — “The original diary was typed on a Canon hot-ribbon typewriter which was seized in 2002 with all my possessions, so it is demonstrably a contemporary document. My view still is that K. had been paid by persons unknown to set me up with this phone call.”

April 17, 2009 (Friday) Windsor (England) UP at 7:50 a.m. Jae comments from Indianapolis on Fred Toben’ s tactics in Australia. He has been convicted of contempt under their laws for suppressing free speech . “Is he just dumb or something?” she asks. “Why continue to provoke them?” I agree: “He brings down fire on our whole front line by these antics.” Jae adds: “It is a slap in the face to everyone who supported him when he was arrested in the UK. He was lucky to get off then.

He shouldn’t press his luck.” This morning a Norwegian journalist tells me that Norwegian radio is broadcasting my intention of attending the literary festival in Lillehammer despite having been “uninvited”. He presses me for details; apart from saying I shall stay in an Oslo hotel, I do not provide any. — I hope this does not squelch all our planning. I SPEND all morning with a film cameraman.

He tapes one hour 14 minutes on life, family, career, books, Lipstadt trial, and the Austrian ambush and imprisonment. Then we film another hour on the Jewish “Holocaust” and the controversies surrounding it including Fred Leuchter and the Reinhardt camps. It will make two DVD discs. Halfway through the filming, little Jessica calls downstairs that there is “a smell of burning.” The house is filled with smoke.

I have put on lunch for us all, and forgotten it; the soup has evaporated entirely, the sausages are burnt to a delicious crisp, and the rhubarb crumble is hot and good. Our white magnolia has already lost all its blossoms, and is now sprouting green leaves; the pink magnolia’s blossoms will all be gone when Jae returns. But Moley’s death has effectively ended the molehill rampage.

Jae translates the Norwegian newspaper article (she is learning the language for our upcoming visit there — what might be called an unAmerican activity): DAVID IRVING IN LILLEHAMMER The controversial British author David Irving confirmed that he will come to the Norwegian Literature Festival in Lillehammer at the end of May, even though he is no longer invited. Last autumn Irving was invited to the annual festival, which has the theme “Truth”.

Many reacted strongly to the invitation, which led to the invitation being revoked. — “I will not be forced to be silent,” says Irving to NRK. “Everything is organised,” says Irving, who relates that he has received many requests to hold a private lecture in Norway after the festival invitation was revoked. He informs that he will lecture on Hitler, Himmler, and the Holocaust, because there are “some interesting questions and answers” attached to this.

For security reasons, Irving will not go into detail about where he will be. Odd Bjørn Fure, history professor and director of the Holocaust Center in Oslo, is not surprised over Irving’s actually coming: “He is a provocateur and here he has found a fantastic opportunity to create a provocation which will really be noticed,” says Fure. He calls Irving a “notorious swindler” and “fraudster who has done nothing other than falsify history”. “Translati

on may be a bit rough,” adds Jae smugly, “but it should give you the general picture.” April 18, 2009 (Saturday) Windsor (England) UP at 8:15 a.m. Sunny, clouding over sometimes. I reply to a man who is in touch with the owner of a mysterious but seemingly historic Hitler document (“A most important original manuscript. . . a 725-page typed account of German political actions from 1914 through 1942.

This is a personal apologia by Adolf Hitler written on the large-type so-called ‘Führermaschine’ , it is double-spaced on watermarked paper, and contains numerous ink corrections and alterations by Hitler himself”) How can we progress this matter with the Hitler document? Is the owner anxious to sell? I have some very good private buyers who pay a lot for genuine items; otherwise, my contacts with the various institutes are good too.

I can certainly have a look at a few pages and test the document’s authenticity; and there are known procedures in the event of any serious doubts — internal evidence, historical accuracy, paper testing, ink, typewriter comparisons, etc., with which you are yourself familiar. I would also like to know a bit more about the provenance. . . Until I know what the whole document is like, it is difficult to hazard a guess.

Ideally, I would like to correspond with the owner, or call on him when I visit the USA in June or July — if he’s near Cleveland — or again this fall. I entrust a minor job to Jae “For the Big Movie, I need the Harry Lime Theme from The Third Man ; possibly even the movie itself, is it on DVD. Can we get it?”

I complete drafting the Claim against The Daily Mail. (they stole a photograph, and published it with a spurious Getty Images credit line: Getty have confirmed to us they never supplied it to them). Jae applauds: “Sue them for everything they’ve got! Crooks!” April 19, 2009 (Sunday) Windsor (England) Jae IS less helpful on The Third Man . “I have never heard of that movie!”

I reply: “One of the most famous post-war movies; I was hoping in your spare moments you could search for the music, the Harry Lime Theme — composer: Anton Karas . As soon as film guy sends me a time-coded print, I will flesh it out with still and movie images, and with music clips, which I am already assembling. Hope to have a bunch ready for the USA tour beginning mid July. I am already going to get most of our 16mm films transferred.

April 20, 2009 (Monday) Windsor (England) I POST a splash page on our website, reminding readers that today is the 120th birthday of Adolf Hitler , whose mighty armies saved Europe from Bolshevism. It will probably soon be illegal in Europe even to say that. From Indianapolis Jae, otherwise the perfect assistant, has written, “Don’t forget your appointment today . . . for the blood-pressure monitoring cuff.” I totally forgot that.

April 21, 2009 (Tuesday) Windsor (England) A NIGHT made miserable by the armband’s peeping and pumping all night long, on the hour and half-hour.

I send this to an expert on DNA, a forensic scientist in Michigan: Three different sources have offered me locks of the Adolf Hitler’s hair collected surreptitiously by his various haircutters; and one, in Pennsylvania, has what he claims are fragments of bone of both Hitler himself and Eva Braun, emanating more or less legally from the old KGB archives in Moscow.

The enclosed scrap of paper — open it carefully — contains two or three strands of hair provided prewar by one of Hitler’s barbers. The colour is generally dark. . . You can retain these enclosures — they are worth about $1,000 a strand on the open market! — and mount them or do whatever you please. I have more. I am hoping you will . . . advise me whether we can build a DNA profile of the man for use in identifying other “relics”.

I pack off Jessica to bed early, as school starts again tomorrow. April 22, 2009 (Wednesday) Windsor (England) WE SET out at 7:15 a.m. in the “Pigmobile” — our little red Citroen van. At 9:14 a.m. I am back at the house, a two-hour round trip, badly delayed by accidents on the M4 in both directions — the kind that empties the motorway for miles ahead. There is a five-car pile-up and the police and rescue vehicles block all three lanes. Turns out that one of the wrecks is a police car.

I tap out an encouraging message to B. at ten-twenty: “Took Jessica