Robert Harris - Selling Hitler

CONTENTS

APRIL 1945: From the ruins of Berlin, a Luftwaffe transport plane takes off carrying secret papers belonging to Adolf Hitler. Half an hour later, it crashes in flames...

APRIL 1983: In a bank vault in Switzerland, a German magazine offers to sell more than 50 volumes of Hitlers secret diaries. The asking price is $4 million...

Written with the pace and verve of a thriller and hailed on publication as a classic, Selling Hitler tells the story of the biggest fraud in publishing history.

Robert Harris is the author of Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, Imperium and The Ghost, all of which were international bestsellers. His latest novel, Lustrum, has just been published. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages. After graduating with a degree in English from Cambridge University, he worked as a reporter for the BBCs Panorama and Newsnight programmes, before becoming political editor of the Observer and subsequently a columnist on the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph. The film of The Ghost for which he co-wrote the screenplay directed by Roman Polanski and starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, is due to be released at the beginning of 2010. He is married to Gill Hornby and they live with their four children in a village near Hungerford.

Fatherland
Enigma
Archangel

Pompeii
Imperium
The Ghost

Lustrum

A Higher Form of Killing (with Jeremy Paxman)

Gotcha!
The Making of Neil Kinnock

Good and Faithful Servant

.A Junkers 352 transport aircraft

.Gerd Heidemann

.Konrad Kujau, forger of Hitlers diaries

.A page from one of the forged diaries

. Three sketches of early Nazi posters, forged by Kujau

.Fritz Stiefel

.August Priesack

.SS General Karl Wolff

.Gerd Heidemann with Billy F. Price, Christa Schroeder and Gerda Christian at the launching of a book of Hitlers paintings

.Gina Heidemann, wife of Gerd Heidemann

.Edith Lieblang, common-law wife of Konrad Kujau

.Manfred Fischer, managing director of Gruner and Jahr

.Gerd Schulte-Hillen, successor to Manfred Fischer at Gruner and Jahr

.Henri Nannen, founder and publisher of Stern

.Dr Thomas Walde, head of Sterns history department

.Peter Koch, chief editor of Stern

.Eberhard Jaeckel, Professor of History at the University of Stuttgart

.Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre)

.Gerhard Weinberg, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina

.David Irving at Stern press conference to launch the Hitler diaries.

.Gerd Heidemann stands trial, accused of fraud

Wilhelm Arndt: Adolf Hitlers personal servant, entrusted with escorting the Fhrers testament to posterity out of Berlin in April 1945

The Marquess of Bath: Owner of the worlds largest collection of Hitlers paintings

Hans Baur: Hitlers personal pilot

Randolph Braumann: Congo Randy, a close friend of Gerd Heidemann

William Broyles: Editor-in-chief of Newsweek

Gerda Christian: One of Hitlers secretaries

Barbara Dickmann: Television journalist hired by Stern to help launch the Hitler diaries

Charles Douglas-Home: Editor of The Times

Manfred Fischer: Managing director of Gruner and Jahr, owners of Stern

Dr Max Frei-Sulzer: Swiss handwriting expert

Francois Genoud: Swiss lawyer representing the families of Hitler, Goebbels and Bormann

Frank Giles: Editor of the Sunday Times

Rolf Gillhausen: Stern editor

Otto Guensche: SS adjutant who burned Hitlers body

Major Friedrich Gundlfinger: Luftwaffe pilot who flew Wilhelm Arndt out of Berlin in April 1945

Gerd Heidemann: Stern journalist responsible for obtaining the Hitler diaries

Gina Heidemann: Wife of Gerd Heidemann

Dr Josef Henke: Senior official of the West German Federal Archives

Dr Jan Hensmann: Deputy managing director of Gruner and Jahr

Peter Hess: Publishing director of Gruner and Jahr

Wolf Hess: Son of Rudolf Hess

Ordway Hilton: American handwriting expert

David Irving: British historian

Eberhard Jaeckel: Professor of History, University of Stuttgart

Medard Klapper: Arms dealer and confidence trickster who alleged he was in touch with Martin Bormann

Peter Koch: Stern editor

Peter Kuehsel: Financial director of Gruner and Jahr

Konrad Kujau: Forger of the Hitler diaries

Edith Lieblang: Konrad Kujaus common law wife

Heinz Linge: Hitlers valet

Brian MacArthur: Deputy editor, the Sunday Times

Werner Maser: West German historian

Rochus Misch: Fhrerbunker switchboard operator

Maria Modritsch: Konrad Kujaus girlfriend

Reinhard Mohn: Chief executive, Bertelsmann AG

SS General Wilhelm Mohnke: Commander of the Fhrerbunker

Rupert Murdoch: Chairman, News International; owner, The Times, Sunday Times and New York Post

Henri Nannen: Founder and publisher of Stern

Lynn Nesbit: Senior Vice-President, International Creative Management

James ODonnell: Author, The Berlin Bunker

Dr Klaus Oldenhage: Official of the West German Federal Archives

Maynard Parker: Editor of Newsweek

Leo Pesch: Journalist employed in Sterns history department

Billy F. Price: Collector of Hitler paintings from Houston, Texas; author, Adolf Hitler: The Unknown Artist

August Priesack: Self-styled professor and expert on Hitlers art, consulted by Fritz Stiefel and Billy Price

Kenneth Rendell: American handwriting expert

Arnold Rentz: West German forensic chemist

Felix Schmidt:Stern editor

Christa Schroeder: One of Hitlers secretaries

Gerd Schulte-Hillen: Manfred Fischers successor as managing director of Gruner and Jahr

Richard Schulze-Kossens: One of Hitlers SS adjutants

Wilfried Sorge: Member of the management of Gruner and Jahr, responsible for selling the Hitler diaries to foreign news organizations

Franz Spoegler: Former SS officer, who offered Heidemann forged correspondence between Churchill and Mussolini

Fritz Stiefel: Stuttgart businessman, collector of Nazi memorabilia

Jakob Tiefenthaeler: Collector of Nazi memorabilia who acted as agent for Gerd Heidemann when he tried to sell Goerings yacht

Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre of Glanton): Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge; Independent National Director, Times Newspapers