Robert K. Wittman

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Une quête inouïe pour retrouver le journal du maître à penser d'Hitler
Document historique d'une valeur inestimable, Le journal du diable constitue une plongée fascinante dans la pensée d'Alfred Rosenberg, l'ami intime d'Hitler et l'idéologue du nazisme, considéré comme l'initiateur de la solution finale qui consigna ce dont il fut le témoin et l'acteur de 1936 à 1944.
Ces 400 précieuses pages d'archives inédites, pièces capitales du procès de Nuremberg, ont disparu mystérieusement avant même la fin des audiences : le procureur américain Robert Kempner, pourfendeur acharné des crimes du IIIe Reich était également un collectionneur d'archives nazies... À sa mort, le funeste journal passe de main en main : il traverse l'Atlantique et devient l'objet de toutes les convoitises. Un professeur le vole à une vieille dame en maison de retraite ; il est égaré dans une benne à ordure ; un archiviste rêve pendant dix-sept ans de se l'approprier... Jusqu'à ce que Robert K. Wittman, un ancien agent du FBI, le retrouve au printemps 2013, mettant ainsi fin à près de soixante-dix ans d'une quête acharnée.
Sa redécouverte permet aujourd'hui de révéler les coulisses du nazisme, de la création du parti national-socialiste au suicide du Führer. Il relate entre autres les rencontres privées d'Alfred Rosenberg avec Hitler, Hermann Göring et Heinrich Himmler. Il décrit également les conséquences de l'invasion de l'Union Soviétique, les arcanes de la solution finale ainsi que la vaste entreprise de pillage des livres et œuvres d'arts à travers l'Europe occupée.
An unprecedented, page-turning narrative of the Nazi rise to power, the Holocaust, and Hitler’s post-invasion plans for Russia told through the recently discovered lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg – Hitler’s ‘philosopher’ and architect of Nazi ideology.
Only recently discovered by former FBI agent Robert Wittman, 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. Filled with observations, conversations and Nazi plans, it gives new details of Hitler’s rise to power and personal governance of the Reich. Not simply the Nazi ideological progenitor, Rosenberg was a core member of Hitler’s inner circle: his ideas for the Third Reich and the destruction it wrought laid the foundations for a brainwashed nation and gave its people the justification for the slaughter of millions; he helped plan the Nazi invasion and subsequent occupation of the Soviet Union and was named Reich Minister for the Eastern Territories.
With the first access to the diary's contents, ‘The Devil’s Diary’ is the thrilling story of Rosenberg; Robert Kempner, the German-born Jewish Nuremberg lawyer who prosecuted Göring and Frick and stole the diary; Henry Mayer, the archivist who has doggedly been searching for it for decades; and Bob Wittman, the former FBI agent who finally found it and returned it to its rightful place.
Einst waren sie wichtiges Belastungsmaterial in den Nürnberger Kriegsverbrecherprozessen: die Tagebücher des NS-Chefideologen und Reichsministers Alfred Rosenberg. Jahrzehntelang galt dieses Schlüsseldokument zum Verständnis des Nationalsozialismus als verschollen. Bis der Hauptarchivar des US Holocaust Memorial Museum, der hartnäckig nach den Tagebüchern forschte, erstmals einen Hinweis auf den Verbleib der Dokumente erhielt: Allem Anschein nach hatte einer der Hauptankläger der Alliierten die Rosenberg-Papiere 1946 entwendet. Erst dank der Findigkeit des FBI-Ermittlers Robert K. Wittman werden an einem Frühlingsmorgen 2013 die 425 losen Seiten in der Handschrift Alfred Rosenbergs nach Washington, D. C., überstellt. Erstmals beschreibt Wittman die Jagd nach den Tagebüchern und analysiert die Schlüsselstellen zum Holocaust und zum Vernichtungskrieg im Osten – ein zeitgeschichtlicher Thriller, ein einzigartiges historisches Dokument.
Er erzählt seine außergewöhnliche Geschichte, die spektakulärsten Undercover-Einsätze beim FBI und seinen abenteuerlichen letzten Fall. Er sollte als Undercover-Agent die Gemälde aus einem der größten Kunstdiebstähle aller Zeiten aufspüren: dem Raub aus dem Gardner Museum in Boston, bei dem Kunstdiebe Werke von Rembrandt, Vermeer und Degas im Wert von rund 222 Millionen Euro erbeuteten. Wird es ihm gelingen, Teile der größten Kulturschätze der Menschheit zurückzugewinnen?
In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.
Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid.
In this page-turning memoir, Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments.
The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow.
By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle? They're both priceless.
The art thieves and scammers Wittman caught run the gamut from rich to poor, smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate loners. The smuggler who brought him a looted 6th-century treasure turned out to be a high-ranking diplomat. The appraiser who stole countless heirlooms from war heroes’ descendants was a slick, aristocratic con man. The museum janitor who made off with locks of George Washington's hair just wanted to make a few extra bucks, figuring no one would miss what he’d filched.
In his final case, Wittman called on every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious art theft of all.