 Documents on David Irving's Relations with the German Federal Archives Bundesarchiv and Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv |
May
2, 1992 (Saturday) ALL day worked packing boxes of all my files. In general I am taking to the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, all old manuscripts (GÖRING, HESS, HITLER, ROMMEL, MILCH, FORSCHUNGSAMT, OSTGRENZE, GUERNICA, UND DEUTSCHLANDS STADTE, and all files of Unterlagen and correspondence relating to them; also late DRESDEN files, and the minor diaries etc collected for HITLER'S WAR. A big heap stacked in the corridor finally, with Andrew M. helping a bit.) Also loaded three boxes of HITLER'S WAR (50 copies) 2 p.m. collected the Transit van from Budget... Set out for Dover at 10 p.m.; boarded ferry [crossed out: 11 p.m.]
May
3, 1992 (Sunday) Boat sailed 1:15 a.m., berthed at Ostende six a.m. local time. . . Arrived at Koblenz at 12 midday.
May
4, 1992 (Monday) Rose 7:30 a.m., at Bundesarchiv 8:30 a.m., deposited my Sammlung with them (Frau Herrmann). Drove off at 9:45 a.m. to Munich, stopping once for a cup of tea and once for a fifteen minute snooze, arriving at Bayerischer Hof on the dot of 3:29 p.m. Alas, hotel had no sign of my 4:30 p.m. press conference; quite the contrary, the manager told me he had cancelled the booking because of Ewald Althans' horrendous invitation leaflet. I was furious. I spoke at Bayerischer Hof with a couple of reporters including local Daily Telegraph man and an agency reporter. ... Jews demonstrated outside the Bayerischer Hof, and inside our press conf., but I handled them tactfully. Two hour conference.
May
4, 1992 (Monday) All day at Institut fur Zeitgeschichte. I notice in Lesesaal 2 that a Hilfskraft is now cataloguing and filing my Sammlung! Fifteen or twenty years after I handed the files to them.
June
15, 1992 (Monday) Worked transcribing more Moscow tape. I am now transcribing Susie's dictation, since it is unlikely she'll do it herself. Breakfast at 7:30, left hotel at 8 a.m. for the Institut für Zeitgeschichte. Found that their microfiche reader downstairs would accept the Moscow microfiche plate, and spent an hour producing perfect prints from the two 1934 plates. 100 pages. Sent some to IfZ Leiter and some to the Bundesarchiv, asking them to authenticate. Poetic justice. Snoozed for half an hour downstairs. Finished work at midday, difficult with this pancaked typewriter.[. . .]
June
19, 1992 Friday) [. . .] Phoned Bundesarchiv, Dr Ritter: he confirms received [Goebbels] page for authentication, will respond within the ten days. […]
June
24, 1992 Wednesday) [… ] Got back to the flat around 5p.m. Faxes had come from Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Elke) and Bundesarchiv (Ritter) confirming that the diaries are superficially genuine. […]
September
14, 1992 (Monday) Then to Stadtbibliothek and archives, only to find a notice saying it is closed on Mondays. Journey here totally wasted. Decided at short notice therefore to spend then day in Koblenz. Took me longer to get there than anticipated, around 2 hours in heavy traffic. At Bundesarchiv 11:30 a.m. Conference there with Dr Ritter (Referat Nachläße), and said I'd sell the Bundesarchiv [at-cost] copies of all the Goebbels diaries I have. [. . .] Ritter whispered to me that the lady sitting next to me was Gudrun Burwitz, daughter of Heinrich Himmler, with her husband. Had a brief gossip with them -- they had spotted in the finding aid that I gave the archives a colour copy of the 1935 Himmler diary. […] |
David Irving |
12:30
p.m at Möwenpick for lunch with Elke
Fröhlich. She turned up 45 minutes late, detained
by conf. at IfZ. Knows all about the Streit over the
Auerbach letter. Warns that the Bundesarchiv and IfZ
are in close cahoots. Most interestingly, told me of how she
found the original glass plate microfiches of Goebbels
Diaries [right] in a Moscow archives, and
that the archivist would be willing to sell them to me if I
took dollars. But before mid June, when Professor
Kahlenberg, chief of Bundesarchiv, will be going there
to recover all captured German records. I: must ask my
publishers if they'll fund this.