British police have discovered forged documents were planted in
the National Archives alleging top Nazi Heinrich Himmler was
murdered on Winston Churchill's orders, the Public Record Office
said.
The investigation identified 29 forgeries that had been slipped
into 12 files after 2000.
The office said it would introduce improved security measures,
including cameras in research areas, to ensure there is no repeat
of the forgery.
Forensic examination revealed letterheads on documents purported to
be written by Brendan Bracken, minister of information for wartime
prime minister Churchill, in 1945 were made with a laser
printer.
This electronic device was not invented until the early 1970s.
Himmler, who controlled the concentration camp system during the
war when he was Hitler's second in command, committed suicide in
1945 when in the custody of the allied forces.
The Financial Times newspaper reported the forgeries were cited as
sources by a historian who had written three books about World War
Two.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it decided in March 2007
not to prosecute historian Martin Allen due to his ill
health.
The Financial Times quoted Allen as denying any knowledge of the
forgeries or how they reached the archives. He suggested he was the
victim of a conspiracy.
"The CPS has concluded that although there is sufficient evidence
to bring a prosecution for forgery and criminal damage, it is not
in the public interest to do so on the grounds of the suspect's ill
health," the CPS said in a statement.
A 900-year time capsule of Britain, the National Archives hold many
priceless historical documents - from Shakespeare's will to the
11th-century Domesday Book.
"The National Archives views anything that compromises the
integrity of historical information very seriously," the National
Archives director of technology and chief information officer,
David Thomas, said in a statement.
"We take pride in the quality of material held here and the level
of access given to original documents.
"For this reason, a thorough investigation was conducted and new
security measures implemented."
The measures include the introduction of a security control room
that provides monitoring and recording facilities of its reading
rooms.
Security cameras have also been installed in research areas and
researchers wanting access to original documents will have to meet
more stringent identification requirements.
The case evokes memories of a 1983 forgery when German news
magazine Stern published what it said were extracts from Hitler's
diaries.
They were later exposed as forgeries.
