A lost diary written by one of Hitler’s closest aides has been found in America.

The document, which disappeared after the Nuremberg trials in 1946, was written by Alfred Rosenberg, who was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the recovered 400-page diary will shed “new light on a number of important issues relating to the Third Reich’s policies”.

The handwritten entries include details of the German occupation of the Soviet Union, meetings with Hitler and other leaders of the Third Reich and plans for the extermination of the Jewish people.