English version of baron’s wartime diaries published

ACCLAIMED German Occupation diaries were rewrittten in their English version to remove anti-Semitic references and disguise the extent of their author’s sexual liaison with a Jerseywoman, according to actor and author John Nettles.

The Bergerac star – who has written the introduction to a new translation of Hans Max Von Aufsess’s diaries – said the version published almost 40 years ago glossed over aspects of the Baron’s beliefs and behaviour that emerge in sharp focus in the new text.

“The new version was a fantastic piece of work but it differed substantially in tone and content from the original diaries published in 1985. It became clear that it was a very much a revised, carefully curated, version of the Occupation experience to make the writer appear much more as the ‘good German’. There were lots of references to touchy subjects in the original diaries, a lot of Jewish references, for example,” Mr Nettles said. ..