The long-lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg, a confidant of Adolf Hitler and one of the most influential insiders in Germany's Nazi regime, has been recovered, US officials announced.
The diary, which was used as evidence at the war crimes trials in Nuremberg, is expected to provide an "unvarnished account" of a Nazi leader and his thoughts and interactions with other leaders of the Nazi party, said John Morton, director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Wilmington, Delaware.
"One of the enduring mysteries of the Second World War is what happened to the Rosenberg diary," Morton said. "We have solved that mystery and today we announce the recovery of the long-lost Rosenberg diary, the meticulous reflections of one of Nazi Germany's most important leaders."
Morton said US officials believe it was smuggled into the United States by Robert Kempner, a Jewish man who served as assistant US chief counsel at the war crimes trials at Nuremberg.
He died in 1993 and his heirs told the museum they planned to donate documents Kempner had kept. The diary, however, was not among the donated items. It was finally tracked down after a search by museum officials led them to a friend of Kempner's secretary in New York where the diary was recovered in April.
Rosenberg was privy to much of the planning for the Nazi state, the extermination of European Jews, the planning and conduct of World War II and the occupation of Eastern Europe.
He directed the systematic looting of Jewish-owned art, cultural resources and religious property throughout Europe.
"We still don't know the full significance of the diary," said Morton. But it does provide an opportunity to "stare into the mind of a dark sole," he added.
The hand-written diary is a loose collection of events from spring 1936 to winter 1944, according to the museum's analysis. In an entry in the diary dated April 2, 1942 entry, for example, Rosenberg quotes Hitler as saying, "Rosenberg, now is your greatest hour."
Morton said the diary would be turned over to the Holocaust museum, located in Washington, DC.
"The documentation is of considerable importance for the study of the Nazi era, including the history of the Holocaust," according to an assessment of the diary prepared by the museum.
The diary could offer insight, for example, into the flight of Rudolf Hess to Britain in 1941 and details about the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union.
Rosenberg, who was director of the Nazi Party's foreign affairs department and edited the leading Nazi newspaper, was convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and hanged in 1946.
Hitler confidant's diary rediscovered after decades
The long-lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg, a confidant of Adolf Hitler and one of the most influential insiders in Germany's Nazi regime, has been recovered, US officials announced.
The diary, which was used as evidence at the war crimes trials in Nuremberg, is expected to provide an "unvarnished account" of a Nazi leader and his thoughts and interactions with other leaders of the Nazi party, said John Morton, director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Wilmington, Delaware.
"One of the enduring mysteries of the Second World War is what happened to the Rosenberg diary," Morton said. "We have solved that mystery and today we announce the recovery of the long-lost Rosenberg diary, the meticulous reflections of one of Nazi Germany's most important leaders."
Morton said US officials believe it was smuggled into the United States by Robert Kempner, a Jewish man who served as assistant US chief counsel at the war crimes trials at Nuremberg.
He died in 1993 and his heirs told the museum they planned to donate documents Kempner had kept. The diary, however, was not among the donated items. It was finally tracked down after a search by museum officials led them to a friend of Kempner's secretary in New York where the diary was recovered in April.
Rosenberg was privy to much of the planning for the Nazi state, the extermination of European Jews, the planning and conduct of World War II and the occupation of Eastern Europe.
He directed the systematic looting of Jewish-owned art, cultural resources and religious property throughout Europe.
"We still don't know the full significance of the diary," said Morton. But it does provide an opportunity to "stare into the mind of a dark sole," he added.
The hand-written diary is a loose collection of events from spring 1936 to winter 1944, according to the museum's analysis. In an entry in the diary dated April 2, 1942 entry, for example, Rosenberg quotes Hitler as saying, "Rosenberg, now is your greatest hour."
Morton said the diary would be turned over to the Holocaust museum, located in Washington, DC.
"The documentation is of considerable importance for the study of the Nazi era, including the history of the Holocaust," according to an assessment of the diary prepared by the museum.
The diary could offer insight, for example, into the flight of Rudolf Hess to Britain in 1941 and details about the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union.
Rosenberg, who was director of the Nazi Party's foreign affairs department and edited the leading Nazi newspaper, was convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and hanged in 1946.
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