Editing Hitler Diaries (section)

==Aftermath==
[[File:Robert Harris01.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A photograph of a man in his fifties looking at the camera. He is wearing an open-collared blue shirt and a blue jacket.|The writer [[Robert Harris (novelist)|Robert Harris]], who published an account of the hoax in 1986]]
When Kujau was released from prison in 1987 he was suffering from throat cancer. He opened a gallery in Stuttgart and sold "forgeries" of [[Salvador Dalí]] and [[Joan Miró]], all signed with his own name.<ref name="ST: More gold" /> Although he prospered, Kujau was later arrested for forging driving licences; he was fined the equivalent of £2,000. He died of cancer in Stuttgart in September 2000.<ref name="Guard: Kujau obit" />

Heidemann was also released from prison in 1987.<ref name="Indie: GH release" /> Five years later it was reported in the German newspaper ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' that in the 1950s he had been recruited by the [[Stasi]], the East German secret police, to monitor the arrival of American nuclear weapons into West Germany.<ref name="BBC: Stasi" /> In 2008 he had debts exceeding €700,000, and was living on social security;<ref name="Indie: GH2008" /> his situation had not changed by 2013, and he remained bitter about his treatment.<ref name="Zeit: Schmidt 1" />

Two of ''Stern''{{'}}s editors, Koch and Schmidt, lost their jobs because of the scandal. Both complained strongly when told that their resignations were expected, pointing out that they had both wanted to sack Heidemann in 1981. A settlement of 3.5&nbsp;million DMs (c. $1&nbsp;million) was provided to each of them as part of the severance package.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=366}} The staff at the magazine were angry at the approach taken by their managers, and held [[sit-in]]s to protest at the "management's bypassing traditional editorial channels and safeguards".<ref name="IHT: Archives" /> The scandal caused a major crisis for ''Stern'' and, according to Esser and Hartung, the magazine "once known for its investigative reporting, became a prime example of sensation-seeking checkbook journalism".{{sfn|Esser|Hartung|2004|p=1063}} ''Stern''{{'}}s credibility was severely damaged and it took the magazine ten years to regain its pre-scandal status and reputation.{{sfn|Esser|Hartung|2004|p=1063}} According to the [[German Historical Institute]], the scandal was also "instrumental in discrediting the tendency toward an 'unprejudiced' and euphemistic assessment of the Third Reich in West German popular culture".<ref name=GHI />

At ''The Sunday Times'', Murdoch moved Giles to the new position of "editor emeritus". When Giles asked what the title meant, Murdoch informed him that "It's Latin, Frank; the ''e'' means you're out and the ''meritus'' means you deserved it."{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|pp=175–176}} Murdoch later said that "circulation went up and it stayed up. We didn't lose money or anything like that", referring to the 20,000 new readers the paper retained after the scandal broke, and the fact that ''Stern'' returned all the money paid to it by the ''Sunday Times''. In April 2012, during the [[Leveson Inquiry]], he acknowledged his role in publishing the diaries, and took the blame for making the decision, saying "It was a massive mistake I made and I will have to live with it for the rest of my life."<ref name="Indie: RM&Leveson" /> Trevor-Roper died in 2003. Despite a long and respected career as a historian, according to [[Richard Davenport-Hines]], his biographer, Trevor-Roper's role in the scandal left his reputation "permanently besmirched".{{sfn|Davenport-Hines|2004}}{{efn|At the time a limerick was circulating around Cambridge:

<blockquote><poem>
There once was a fellow named Dacre,
Who was God in his own little acre,
But in the matter of diaries,
He was quite ''ultra vires'',
And unable to spot an old faker.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=326}}
</poem></blockquote>}} In January 1984 Broyles resigned as editor of ''Newsweek'', to "pursue new entrepreneurial ventures".<ref name="NW: Broyles resig" />

In 1986 the journalist [[Robert Harris (novelist)|Robert Harris]] published an account of the hoax, ''Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries''.<ref name="Obs: Selling H" /> Five years later ''[[Selling Hitler]]'', a five-episode drama-documentary series based on Harris's book, was broadcast on the British [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] channel. It starred [[Jonathan Pryce]] as Heidemann, [[Alexei Sayle]] as Kujau, [[Tom Baker]] as Fischer, [[Alan Bennett]] as Trevor-Roper, [[Roger Lloyd-Pack]] as Irving, [[Richard Wilson (Scottish actor)|Richard Wilson]] as Nannen and [[Barry Humphries]] as Murdoch.<ref name="ST: Selling Hitler" /> Later that year Charles Hamilton published the second book to investigate the forgeries: ''The Hitler Diaries''.<ref name="Guard: Hamilton" /> In 1992 the story of the diaries was adapted to the big screen by [[Helmut Dietl]], in his satirical German-language film ''[[Schtonk!]]''<ref name="ST: Schtonk" /> The film, which starred [[Götz George]] as Heidemann and [[Uwe Ochsenknecht]] as Kujau, won three [[Deutscher Filmpreis]] awards, and nominations for a [[Golden Globe]] and an [[Academy Award]].<ref name="D. Tel: Schtonk" />{{sfn|Rentschler|2003|p=181}}

In 2004 one of the diaries was sold at auction for €6,400 to an unknown buyer.<ref name="DP-A: auction" /> ''Stern'' announced in 2013 that they would hand over the remainder to the {{lang|de|Bundesarchiv}}<ref name="IHT: Archives" /> but the transfer never took place.<ref>{{cite web |title=Auftakt des Prozesses um die gefälschten Hitler-Tagebücher |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/DE/Content/Dokumente-zur-Zeitgeschichte/19840821-prozessauftakt-hitlertagebuecher.html |publisher=Bundesarchiv |access-date=24 April 2023 |language=de |date=21 August 1984}}</ref> One of the ''Sunday Times'' journalists involved in the story, [[Brian MacArthur]], later explained why so many experienced journalists and businessmen "were so gullible" about the authenticity of the diaries:

<blockquote>...&nbsp; the discovery of the Hitler diaries offered so tempting a scoop that we all wanted to believe they were genuine. Once hoist with a deal, moreover, we had to go on believing in their authenticity until they were convincingly demonstrated as forgeries.&nbsp;... The few of us who were in on the secret fed in the adrenalin: we were going to write the most stunning scoop of our careers.<ref name="S Times: MacArthur" /></blockquote>

In March 2023 all 62 volumes of the forged diaries were published in hard copy by the German publisher März Verlag and for free viewing on the website of [[Norddeutscher Rundfunk]]. In April the publishing house Bertelsmann, which owns the diaries, said it would give them to the German state for preservation. The [[Leibniz Association|Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History]] has been tasked with investigating the diaries' reception and why they were taken so seriously. As part of the investigation, it will examine Nannen, who died in 1996 and is now known to have had more involvement in Nazism than previously thought. The diaries will be put on public display at the [[German Federal Archives]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Connolly|first=Kate|date=24 April 2023|title=Fake Hitler diaries to go on public display in Germany|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/fake-hitler-diaries-to-go-on-public-display-in-germany|access-date=24 April 2023|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>