Konrad Kujau's Hitler Diaries
The Players and the Stakes
On
District Attorney Dietrich Klein was the prosecuting attorney overseeing the case. Klein lined up several dozen witnesses who he believed would reveal potentially damaging testimony that would help further his case. He was determined to pull out all of his guns to make sure that those convicted would bear the full brunt of the law. He had, after all, Konrad’s confession of guilt working in his favor.
Acting in Konrad’s defense was Attorney Kurt Groenewold, whose sole purpose was to ensure that Konrad received the lightest possible sentence for forging the diaries. According to
Heidemann’s defense attorneys included Reinhard Daum and Holger K. Schroeder, whose strategy was to not only put the blame on Stern for using their client as a “scapegoat,” but to also blame Konrad for defrauding Heidemann in the first place. Concerning the money that he was suspected of embezzling, Heidemann’s attorney’s claimed that he dutifully paid over the entire amount of 9 million German marks in exchange for the diaries. Moreover, they suggested that Konrad was the sole mastermind behind the entire hoax, not their client.
The goal of Edith’s lawyers, Pieter Koenig and Walter Roesler, was to prove that their client was innocent of any wrongdoing in relation to the forgery. Their goal was to depict Edith as a dutiful and honest wife who merely supported her husband as a spouse, yet not in his illegal activities. Of all the defendants, she had the highest chance of escaping the tougher sentences that would likely be handed down if found guilty.
