The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 14, March 31, 2002, Article 10

PSEUDONYM OF DR. WILHELM HOETTL

  While searching the web for more information on
  Operation Bernhard,  the following tidbit about
  earlier books on the subject turned up. The information
  is recorded as part of testimony by Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl
  at the trial of Nazi official Adolf Eichmann in 1961.
  He wrote The Secret Front and Operation Bernhard
  (not to be confused with the Anthony Pirie book
  titled Operation Bernhard):

  "The book was originally published under my pseudonym,
  Walter Hagen, but later in my own name, Dr. Wilhelm
  Hoettl, particularly for the English and American editions.

  In reply to the question as to whether I wrote the book
  primarily as an historian or more as literature, I would
  state the following:

  As a responsible historian, I maintain to this day that Die
  Geheime Front (The Secret Front) is historically sound as
  far as all the essentials are concerned; it was of course
  necessary to add minor literary embellishments, since that
  is the only way to sell enough copies, purely historical
  works not being known as commercial successes.  Just at
  the time when this book was published I had to depend
  on it for my income.

  Asked in this connection about the nature of the book,
  Unternehmen Bernhard (Operation Bernhard), my reply
  is as follows:

  Unlike my first book, The Secret Front, Operation Bernhard
  is to a large extent a piece of journalism, which can best
  be compared with the so-called documentary reports which
  are common today.  Although the background to this book
  - the counterfeiting of Sterling during the Second World War
  - is historically genuine, and some details I give in the report
  are based on actual events, the literary make-up is far
  stronger than in The Secret Front."

Wilhelm_Hoettl-08.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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