Did anybody ever think to call the forensics guy? Ahhh, no.
But he came calling anyway: Julius Grant, a British secret agent and forensic scientist, decided to have a look. This was a guy who made a living doing chemical analysis of inks, papers and materials used in making documents, and testifying to what he found in court. And he was no slouch. Leading authorities regularly regarded him as the greatest forensic scientist in the realm of diplomatics and document analysis. When shown the purported Hitler Diaries, Grant took all of two weeks to reach his conclusion:
Fake. Really fake.
Not only was the ink brand-spanking new, the paper had been aged like some kid burning the edges of a 6th grade treasure map. A real Kinko's special. On top of this, it's the scientist who discovers the historical inaccuracies too -- not really the job of a pure forensic document examiner, but nevertheless the kind of thing it doesn't hurt to be good at if this is your cup of tea.
So... if you have an eye for art, a mind for history, or a penchant for visual analysis combined with a scientist's analytical curiosity, then diplomatics is definitely a field to consider. Unlike other branches of forensics, document examination work is very apprenticeship-based. It really takes a lot of time, working with a seasoned veteran, to learn the nuances of piecing together all the disparate facts in a forgery case. Of course, many of the lab techniques used (like thin-layer chromatography for ink analysis, or carbon dating for fiber aging) can be learned in a lab, but the rest is a true art. But hey -- this is the kind of job for someone with the mind of a scientist and the heart of an artist.
There aren't a lot of books out there on the topic, but a really popular one is Scientific Examination of Questioned Documents, Second Edition. Be forewarned that it's pretty pricey, but not more than you would expect for a text in a niche field like questioned documents examination.