Robert K. Wittman

John Shiffman

The creator of the FBI's Art Crime Team recounts his dramatic career, describing high-stakes undercover missions involving valuable stolen antiquities, in an account that covers his role in a famous unsolved crime.

How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures

Priceless

"This exploration of the private wartime diary of Alfred Rosenberg--Hitler's 'chief philosopher' and architect of Nazi ideology--interweaves the story of its recent discovery with the revelation of its never-before-published contents, which are contextualized by the authors: The result is a unprecedented, page-turning narrative of the Nazi rise to power, the Holocaust, and Hitler's post-invasion plans for Russia. A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil's Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler's 'chief social philosopher,' Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich's genocidal crusade. It also chronicles the thrilling detective hunt for the diary, which disappeared after the Nuremburg Trials and remained lost for almost three quarters of a century, until Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent who founded the Bureau's Art Crimes Team, played an important role and tells his story now for the first time. The authors expertly and deftly contextualize more than 400 pages of entries stretching from 1936 through 1944, in which the loyal Hitler advisor recounts internal meetings with the Führer and his close associates Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler; describes the post-invasion occupation of the Soviet Union; considers the 'solution' to the 'Jewish question'; and discusses his overseeing of the mass seizure and cataloguing of books and artwork from homes, libraries, and museums across occupied Europe. An eyewitness to events, this narrative of Rosenberg's diary offers provocative and intimate insights into pivotal moments in the war and the notorious Nazi who laid the philosophical foundations of the Third Reich"--

Alfred Rosenberg and the stolen secrets of the Third Reich

The devil's diary

David Kinney

A groundbreaking World War II narrative wrapped in a riveting detective story, The Devil’s Diary investigates the disappearance of a private diary penned by one of Adolf Hitler’s top aides—Alfred Rosenberg, his “chief philosopher”—and mines its long-hidden pages to deliver a fresh, eye-opening account of the Nazi rise to power and the genesis of the Holocaust An influential figure in Adolf Hitler’s early inner circle from the start, Alfred Rosenberg made his name spreading toxic ideas about the Jews throughout Germany. By the dawn of the Third Reich, he had published a bestselling masterwork that was a touchstone of Nazi thinking. His diary was discovered hidden in a Bavarian castle at war’s end—five hundred pages providing a harrowing glimpse into the mind of a man whose ideas set the stage for the Holocaust. Prosecutors examined it during the Nuremberg war crimes trial, but after Rosenberg was convicted, sentenced, and executed, it mysteriously vanished. New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Wittman, who as an FBI agent and then a private consultant specialized in recovering artifacts of historic significance, first learned of the diary in 2001, when the chief archivist for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum contacted him to say that someone was trying to sell it for upwards of a million dollars. The phone call sparked a decade-long hunt that took them on a twisting path involving a pair of octogenarian secretaries, an eccentric professor, and an opportunistic trash-picker. From the crusading Nuremberg prosecutor who smuggled the diary out of Germany to the man who finally turned it over, everyone had reasons for hiding the truth. Drawing on Rosenberg’s entries about his role in the seizure of priceless artwork and the brutal occupation of the Soviet Union, his conversations with Hitler and his endless rivalries with Göring, Goebbels, and Himmler, The Devil’s Diary offers vital historical insight of unprecedented scope and intimacy into the innermost workings of the Nazi regime—and into the psyche of the man whose radical vision mutated into the Final Solution.

Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich

The Devil's Diary

El diario del Diablo es un análisis exhaustivo del contenido de uno de los hallazgos históricos más destacados de la historia reciente, el diario de Alfred Rosenberg, ideólogo del nazismo; pero a la vez es una aventura apasionante, la de la tenaz e incansable búsqueda e investigación por parte de dos hombres para recuperar el documento perdido. En mayo de 1945, tras la rendición de Alemania, el ejército estadounidense encuentra en el castillo de Banz, en Baviera, una ingente cantidad de documentos nazis que registran sus peores secretos, relacionados con el exterminio del pueblo judío. Entre esos documentos se halla el impresionante diario de Alfred Rosenberg: un claro testimonio de su odio hacia los judíos, los bolcheviques y los comunistas. El libro, utilizado como prueba durante los juicios de Núremberg, desaparece hasta que, en los años noventa, un archivista del Museo Estadounidense Conmemorativo del Holocaustointenta recuperarlo. Este, con la ayuda de Robert K. Wittman -antiguo agente especial del FBI y fundador del FBI Art Crime Team-, logrará dar con el diario, que se hallaba en Nueva York, donde había ido a parar muchos años después de haber sido robado por un abogado judío que participó en los juicios. Toda esta serie de peripecias son narradas con maestría por Robert K. Wittman y David Kinney -escritor y periodista de The New York Times y The Washington Post, entre otros-. Juntos desvelan, con una espeluznante claridad, la psique y la esperpéntica visión del mundo de una de las figuras clave del Tercer Reich.

Alfred Rosenberg y los secretos robados del Tercer Reich

El diario del diablo

Ze vormden ooit belangrijk belastend bewijsmateriaal in de Neurenbergse processen waarin de belangrijkste nazi-kop-stukken werden berecht: de 425 pagina’s tellende dagboeken van nazi-ideoloog en Reichsminister Alfred Rosenberg. Na de processen bleken ze spoorloos verdwenen, niemand kon ze meer vinden, en decennialang werden de nationaal-socialistische sleuteldocumenten als verloren beschouwd. Tot hoofdarchivaris van het Amerikaanse Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington te horen kreeg dat de hoofdaanklager van Neurenberg de dagboeken wel eens ontvreemd zou kunnen hebben. FBI-onderzoeker Robert K. Wittman – gespecialiseerd in het traceren van verloren gewaande historische documenten – kwam Rosenbergs dagboeken op het spoor. In 2013 kon hij ze overhandigen aan het Holocaust Memorial Museum. Hoe kreeg Wittman dit voor elkaar? Samen met Pulitzer Prize-winnaar David Kinney beschrijft Wittman in Dagboek van de duivel de jacht op het omstreden egodocument. Tegelijk biedt het boek een analyse van de ideeën van Rosenberg, de man die door Hitler werd omschreven als de ‘kerkvader van het nationaalsocialisme’ en die de oorlogsmisdaden van de nazi’s ideologisch moest legitimeren. Dagboek van de duivel is een uniek historisch document dat leest als een eigentijdse historische thriller.

de jacht op de verloren gewaande papieren van nazi-ideoloog Alfred Rosenberg

Dagboek van de duivel

When in 2014 former FBI agent Robert K. Wittman finally discovered the lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi High Priest, it opened a window into the mind of the 'philosopher' of the Nazi party, a man instrumental in providing justifications for Hitler and his nation's actions. Only recently discovered, the diary of Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, who led the Nazi party when Hitler was interned in 1923, is a ground-breaking document and an object of rumour, obsession and evil.

Robert K. Wittman

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