A Historian's Diary - Phil Blood
Week 1
This new project incorporates a broad range of themes and its necessary to acquire broad selection of the primary documents. Thus far, we had trawled the Bundesarchiv in Berlin and Freiburg for documents, and Munich was identified as a final source for several key documents. The plan for this week involved Bettina (aka the Lady) to visit the Munich archives.
There was exciting news from the outset. ‘Open’ research trips usually lead to interesting finds, but Bettina identified a series of documents with content that contradicts some of our initial findings. Bettina estimated there is more than one trip of content to manage. In seven days, she has photographed a large proportion of these records. Consequently, we are planning a joint visit in May as a final sweep of the records.
With the flu and my difficulty with travel, I remained in Aachen and begin writing a summary report - thoughts, findings and criticism etc. Since writing an PhD upgrade essay for Richard Holmes in 1998, the value of completing a form of ‘SWOT’ analysis for a complex book project is not lost on me. Similar reports had been drafted for all my previous books, but this project is a bit more demanding - like a large jigsaw puzzle without a picture. Once this report is drafted I will post a summary of points.
Finally in this first, but short diary entry, a note about Bettina’s visit to the hunting museum in Munich. The museum holds Matador’s antlers, shot by Göring in September 1942 and filmed in a ritual sacrifice. The full story is in my book Birds of Prey (2021) and was also discussed in several World War 2 TV shows with Woody, including the most recent about the Nazi Occult. Have a great week everyone.
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