‘Perhaps it would be best to stick to the story, Fyodorov.’

‘Of course, sir. Hoffman insisted that he had done what he could to help people, including Jews and party comrades, and gave me many examples. He said he thought some people would still be alive who could vouch for him. As it happens, he mentioned one senior comrade who’d gone to Moscow in 1932 and who returned here when we liberated the city, and this man was able to confirm that Hoffman had indeed been a member of the KPD.

‘However, we still needed to investigate him; to be sure he’d not been involved in serious crimes. Then he told me a story he admitted was hard to verify but he felt I ought to know about it anyway. He said he had a contact who lived in Tiergarten, a schoolteacher called Willi Kühn. Kühn had also been a KPD comrade, though he’d left the party in 1930, and because of his profession his membership had been under a false name, which I understand was not uncommon: Hoffman used an assumed name too.

‘In April, Hoffmann bumped into Kühn in the Tiergarten and they had a coded conversation, the type where one tries to ascertain which side the other is on. Hoffman said that once it was clear they were both anti-Nazis, Kühn told him this story. He said that he had grown up in a small town in Saxony and one of his childhood friends was the son of his mother’s best friend. When he moved to Berlin, he met up with this friend and was horrified to discover he was now a prominent Nazi, but he said he allowed the friendship to continue because he never knew when it would come in handy. Sure enough, in 1941, Kühn almost lost his job because some pupils at his school informed on him and said he made negative remarks about the war and displayed no enthusiasm for Hitler. He contacted his old friend, who interceded on his behalf. Because this man was so important, he says not only was his job safe, but he was even promoted!’

‘I think you omitted to tell them the name of this prominent Nazi, Comrade.’

‘Have you heard of Martin Bormann?’

‘Yes, wasn’t he…’

‘…effectively Hitler’s deputy.’ Gurevich nodded. ‘He was his private secretary and head of the Nazi Party machinery. He had the rank of Reichsleiter – so RLB stands for Reichsleiter Bormann. Do you realise how important he is?’

Hanne nodded for Gurevich to tell them.

‘Reichsleiter was the second highest rank in the Nazi regime, after that of Führer, and by the end of the war there were only around twenty of them left. More to the point, Bormann is perhaps the most senior Nazi unaccounted for. Hitler committed suicide, of course, as did Goebbels and Himmler. Rudolf Hess had fled to Britain during the war, as you know. Other senior Nazis like Göring, Streicher, Jodl, Kaltenbrunner, von Ribbentrop, Keitel and Seyss-Inquart are awaiting trial. There are plenty of senior Nazis at liberty, especially from the SS, but of the leadership – those who ran things here in Berlin – Bormann must be the most important one. Carry on, Comrade Kapitan.’