Police find Himmler/Churchill archive forgeries

By John Joseph

LONDON (Reuters) - 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 on Saturday.

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 Bernard 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 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.