By Ben Fenton and Kate Connolly
The National Archives [Public Record Office] were given a warning last year that forged documents had been smuggled into their records, nine months before an investigation by The Daily Telegraph found bogus material in two files.
Those papers had been used to support claims in a book called Himmler’s Secret War, by Martin Allen, that the SS leader was murdered by British intelligence agents in May 1945 to prevent his interrogation by the Americans.
But the earlier warning to the archives in Kew, southwest London, from a German academic, were about documents referred to in another of Mr Allen’s books, The Hitler/Hess Deception, published in 2003.
Dr Ernst Haiger, who has published a biography of [Professor Karl Haushofer] one of the central figures in the Hess book, wrote to the archives on Oct 22 last year [2004], pointing out that there were six documents that he suspected of being counterfeit. All had been reproduced in facsimile in the German edition of the book.
Within a fortnight an official at the archives replied to the effect that the documents were accurate representations and had been correctly cited.
However, the archives are now reconsidering that finding in the light of the Himmler forgeries. Four of the six Hess-related documents are being studied by its experts as part of a wider study of forgery allegations brought by the Telegraph and at least one shows obvious evidence of counterfeiting.
In the case of the two other papers, the information cited by Mr Allen does not appear in the files. In one case, Mr Allen told a German television company interested in making a programme about his book that he had accidentally cited the wrong reference number and that the second file was about an unrelated matter.
The thesis of the book is that British intelligence duped Rudolph Hess, Hitler’s deputy, (right), into flying to Scotland in May 1941 thinking that he would be discussing peace negotiations with people able to persuade the government to compromise with the Nazis.
According to Mr Allen’s ideas, which few other writers share, intelligence wanted to trick the Germans into attacking the Soviet Union to win time for the defence of Britain.
Dr Haiger, 64, a Berlin professor at the equivalent of the Open University, said he had been alerted by the unlikeliness of the story.
Of the letter from the archives, he said: “I was disappointed because I did not think they had made much effort.”
He contacted The Daily Telegraph after the appearance on July 1 of the report identifying the Himmler documents as forged. He said: “I hope it can be scientifically proved now that the documents in the Hess book are also forgeries.
A spokesman for Mr Allen said that if documents for the Hess book were proved to be fake, it would show that he was suffering for the assiduity of his research, in which he read all available material.
The Archives said : “We have extended the scope of our investigation to include documents on four other files.”
