Editing Hitler Diaries (section)

===Gerd Heidemann===
[[Gerd Heidemann]] was born in [[Hamburg]] in 1931. During the rise of Hitler his parents remained apolitical, but Heidemann, like many other young boys, joined the [[Hitler Youth]]. After the war he trained as an electrician, and pursued an interest in photography. He began working in a photographic laboratory and became a freelance photographer for the [[Deutsche Presse-Agentur]] and Keystone news agencies, as well as some local Hamburg newspapers. He had his first work published in ''[[Stern (magazine)|Stern]]'' in 1951 and four years later joined the paper as a full-time member of staff.{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|p=25}}{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=59}} From 1961 he covered wars and hostilities across Africa and the Middle East;{{efn|Heidemann photographed and reported on action in the Congo, Biafra, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Uganda, Beirut and Oman.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=60}}}} he became obsessed with these conflicts and other stories on which he worked, such as the search for the identity of the German writer [[B. Traven]]. Although he was an excellent researcher—his colleagues called him {{lang|de|der Spürhund}}, the Bloodhound—he would not know when to stop investigating, which led to other writers having to finish the stories from large quantities of notes.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=60–62}}

In January 1973, on behalf of ''Stern'', Heidemann photographed the ''Carin II'', a yacht that formerly belonged to Göring.{{efn|Göring had been given the yacht in 1937 and had named it after his late wife. At the end of the war it was impounded by [[Field Marshal]] [[Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein|Bernard Montgomery]], who presented it to the British royal family. They renamed it the ''Royal Albert'', and then changed its name to the ''Prince Charles'', after his birth. In 1960 it was returned to Göring's widow.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=57}}}} The boat was in a poor state of repair and expensive to maintain, but Heidemann took a mortgage on his Hamburg flat and purchased it.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=57}} While researching the history of the yacht, Heidemann interviewed Göring's daughter, [[Edda Göring|Edda]], after which the couple began an affair. Through this relationship and his ownership of the boat he was introduced to a circle of former Nazis. He began to hold parties on the ''Carin II'', with the former [[SS]] generals [[Karl Wolff]] and [[Wilhelm Mohnke]] as the guests of honour. Wolff and Mohnke were witnesses at Heidemann's wedding to his third wife in 1979; the couple went on honeymoon to South America accompanied by Wolff, where they met more ex-Nazis, including [[Walter Rauff]] and [[Klaus Barbie]], who were both wanted in the West for [[war crime]]s.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=77–78}}

The purchase of the yacht caused Heidemann financial problems, and in 1976 he agreed terms with [[Gruner + Jahr]], ''Stern''{{'}}s parent company, to produce a book based on the conversations he was having with the former soldiers and SS men.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=64–66}} When the book went unwritten—the material provided by the former SS officers was not sufficiently interesting or verifiable for publication—Heidemann borrowed increasingly large sums from his employers to pay for the boat's upkeep. In June 1978 he advertised the boat for sale, asking 1.1&nbsp;million DMs; he received no offers.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=83–84}} Mohnke recommended that Heidemann speak to Jakob Tiefenthaeler, a Nazi memorabilia collector and a former member of the SS. Tiefenthaeler was not in a position to buy the yacht, but was happy to act as an agent; his endeavours did not produce a sale. Realising Heidemann's financial circumstances, Tiefenthaeler provided him with names of other collectors in the Stuttgart area. The journalist made a trip to the south of Germany and met Stiefel, who purchased some of Göring's effects.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=84–85}}