William Hastings Burke

Author, journalist and researcher with a few documentaries on the side.

William in Paris
Author of Thirty Four
William Hastings Burke

'William Hastings Burke has done a great service by bringing Albert's deeds to light.'

Gilead Sher, The Jewish Chronicle

Born in 1983, William grew up on the shores of Sydney Harbour. He studied Economics (Soc.Sc.) (Hons) at the University of Sydney and planned to pursue a PhD until Albert Göring turned his life (and history) on its head.

Hungry for more answers, William moved to Freiburg, Germany, where he began a three-year journey to piece together the puzzle of the Göring brothers. He travelled the world, digging through archives and tracking down witnesses to Albert’s story.

The product was William’s first book, Thirty Four – named after the list Albert had penned in Nuremberg, which documents the thirty-four most prominent beneficiaries of his deeds. The book caught the world’s attention, with the international media quickly picking up the story. The book has since been published in five languages and after inspiring numerous documentaries, it is now set to be turned into a feature film.

William went on to present and help produce the documentary Goering’s Last Secret for Channel 5, BBC World and the History Channel.

He has also worked as an expert researcher and consultant on other related documentaries, including Le Dossier Albert Göring (Planète +, 2014), The Good Goering (BBC Radio 4, 2016) and La liste Göring (Toute l’Histoire, 2020).

In 2010, William submitted an application to Yad Vashem in Israel for Albert Göring to be considered for the title of Righteous Among the Nations. Despite including the requisite sworn testimonies and documentary evidence, the application was denied, although the case remains open. He is currently working on a second application.

Apart from his life’s work on Albert Göring, he has flitted between journalism, marketing and TV & Film. He is currently working on another WWII rescue novel and a political thriller, while also providing research support to authors, publishers, production companies and family history enthusiasts. → More here.

He currently lives with his family and their border collie on the fringes of Kampinos National Park, Poland – along with the odd moose.

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By the numbers

1073
In 1983, William was born in Sydney, Australia.
34
96 cases have been documented where Albert had either saved or aided people during WWII.That’s at least according to the evidence at hand. Given Albert’s ability to cover his tracks and larger acts, that figure could well be in the hundreds.
0
Thirty Four was published in five languages, including English, German, Polish, Czech and Russian.
1066
The term New Journalism was popularised by Tom Wolfe in his 1973 book of the same name. The writing style of Thirty Four was inspired by this hands-on and literary approach to journalism.
0
As part of his defence in Nuremberg, Albert Göring drafted up a list of the thirty-four most prominent beneficiaries of his deeds. This list would guide William’s research and ultimately give his book its name.
0
Thirty Four has formed the basis of four different documentaries.
0
Did you know that Hastings is actually William’s middle name? He gets his given names from William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
0
William was twenty-six when Thirty Four was published.
0
William speaks 3.5 languages: English, German and Polish with a bit of Norwegian.

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William Hastings Burke

Hermannns Bruder: Wer war Albert Göring
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Thirty Four by William Hastings Burke
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Lista Göringa
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