Word: trevor
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When such historians as Hugh Trevor-Roper and David Irving within days of the "discovery" change "yes" to "perhaps" or "no" to "yes," it appears that being on the winning side is more important than intellectual probity. Responsible historians should keep their lips sealed until they have researched the subject properly. The wobbling actions of these experts have dealt historiography a slap...
Stern stuck stubbornly to its story. The magazine's claims drew heavily on the reputation of Cambridge Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (The Last Days of Hitler), a director of the Times Newspapers Ltd. He examined some of the books in a Swiss bank and wrote...
...criticism of Stern's claims rose rather than abated. Trevor-Roper developed second thoughts. "I must have misunderstood," he said. "The link between the airplane and the archive is not absolutely established." Finally, he added: "I am now convinced that some documents in that collection were forgeries...
Clearly damaged were the indecisive Trevor-Roper and British Historian David Irving, the only expert to switch from skeptical to an affirmative assessment of the diaries. Irving had earlier interrupted a Stern press conference about the diaries, calling them "pure fabrications" and shouting for tests on the "ink, ink, ink." But as he read more of the diary notes, he had announced that "I'm becoming more inclined to believe they are authentic." He said the handwriting in the later diaries "sloped down off the rulings," as it should in view of Hitler's illness in those years...
...much the 62 volumes could contribute to the historical record. If the diaries are authentic, their provenance has been tainted by Stern's mishandling of their verification. Asked to believe the all but impossible and denied the opportunity for proof, academics and most of the press rightly balked. Trevor-Roper summed up, more in sorrow than in anger: "As a historian, I regret that the normal process of historical verification has been subordinated, perhaps necessarily, to the requirements of a journalistic scoop...