Fakes and Hoaxes

Click on the above page and enlarge it. Look. Is authentic or a forgery? Did it originate from the fissure of a depraved mind? On a bizarre research trek into the area of obsessed liars, I would find the enigmatic answer. This poor quality but volatile four page document (one page shown above) was faxed to me by a Florida based treasure hunter.

The four pages portray SS Generals Heinrich Müller and Odlio Globocnik, surviving World War II and working for U.S. Intelligence and in the process supplying the funds for extensive intelligence gathering using Holocaust assets. This would be front page news for every major newspaper and TV broadcast in the world. Public outcry would demand that cold war history be rewritten and everyone involved be held accountable from former President Harry S. Truman through the top military officials of the late 1940s.

Gestapo Müller and Globocnik were vile human beings and stereotypes of the Nazi inhuman brute, involved in the murder of millions of innocent men, women, and children. They both disappeared in the closing days of World War II. Müller did not have a “money trail” therefore he was not of an interest to the author. Globocnik on the other hand, based on a document faxed with the above four pages, had buried in the area of Weissensee truck loads of gold, platinum, and diamonds. The fax describes the hidden treasure: 2,100 kilos gold bars, 1,375 kilos gold jewelry, 217 kilos scrap platinum, 15,381 British gold sovereigns, 6,113 French 20 franc gold Napoleons, 4,659 French 10 franc gold Napoleons, 2,554 U.S. $20 gold coins, 23,459 German 100 Reichsmarks notes and much more including thousands of carats of diamonds.

I had to authenticate these documents. The British claimed that during his capture in southern Austria, Globocnik had taken cyanide and died. A single page, dated 15 November 1963, in his file in the National Archives states: “Globocnik did not survive the war, he was killed or committed suicide in northern Italy in early 1945”. The above four page document states that he worked for the U.S. Globocnik was rich enough to buy his way out of captivity and his body has never been identified forensically. This was a cold trail.

Now where did the documents originate? An inquiry to the treasure hunter reviled that the documents were supplied to them by Gregory Douglas. A year later, during a conversation with team members of the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets, I discussed the Globocnik documents. One of the team members told me that they were also interested in Gregory Douglas, but his real name was Peter Stahl.

Later, I had lunch with Robert Wolfe, retired Director of Military Branch of the National Archives, and told him about the Peter Stahl furnished documents. Dr. Wolfe told me he had received the documents about 10 years ago and examined then for more than two years including seeking the originals and concluded that they had been created in the mind of Peter Stahl. Afterwards, I found out the noted author, Gitta Serney, had received the same four pages on 28 December, 1983 from Peter Stahl. After 17 years she concluded that the Peter Stahl documents were false.

His lies as Peter Stahl had caught up with him, so he required a new name. Under the alias of Douglas Gregory he “sold” his story to R. James Bender Publishing and they published a series of books on the subject of Müller involvement with U.S. military intelligence. During this time the treasure hunters in Florida along with Douglas went to the Weissensee in southern Austria and searched for the buried Globocnik treasure. They did not uncover a single penny.

Disturbingly, I am left with the question of a rational explanation for such a clever forgery? Why would an individual exaggerate the untruth? Have I missed something?