rogersde

I decided to watch this even though my gut was screaming "Don't Do It!!!!" after all my experiences with previous Rookie documentary episodes. I decided to hope this one would be different. Not only was I wrong, but this was the worst of these fake documentaries by a long shot. It was extremely hard to follow or care about, since it revolved around a minor character long since forgotten (the former fiancée of Nolan's son, and the son himself hasn't been seen in a long time). I'll know better next time I see one of these stupid documentary-style epiosodes and I WILL NOT WATCH. If you haven't already seen this episode, it's perfectly fine to skip it if you fear missing out on any threads that carry over from previous episodes - I can see only one minor way that they could try to link any details from this episode to future ones.

I lived through these events as a young man in Germany. I even bought the issue of Stern that alleged the magazine's journalists had found the Hitler diaries. I followed the case for years, including reading Robert Harris's book *Selling Hitler*. This limited series, "Faking Hitler," is an entertaining one, but many of the important facts are wrong or just invented. For instance, there were many more volumes of alleged diaries that had been purchased by Stern by April 1983 than the few that are presented in this series. The side story about the young journalist whose father was a war criminal in hiding? As the Germans say, Quatsch (rubbish). But the family drama provided some tension and served its purpose. Stern and its international publishing partners made more extensive (but still flawed) efforts to verify the authenticity of the diaries than are presented here. And It was the German Federal Archives, not the German Federal Criminal Police Office, that examined the documents after their public presentation and proved quickly they were absurdly crude forgeries. Etc. But if you want to experience some nostalgia for the early 80s in Germany, the series is well worth watching.