She looked around as the crowd, anticipating the semi-final of the 100-metres, grew more excited. With the hurdles cleared off the track, there were now several sprinters warming up, including the man the crowd had come to see: Jesse Owens. For a moment, her attention was devoted entirely to the negro athlete.

‘Isn’t he superb?’ she said. ‘Owens I mean. In a class of his own.’

‘But Paul did get hold of the papers, didn’t he?’

She nodded. ‘Paul was very determined,’ she said, distractedly. ‘At such times, he could be quite ruthless, you know.’

‘I don’t doubt it.’

‘There is a department in the Gestapo at Prinz Albrecht Strasse, which deals with associations, clubs and the DAF. Paul persuaded them to issue a “red tab” on Von Greis, so that he could be arrested immediately. Not only that, but they saw to it that Von Greis was picked up by Alarm Command, and taken to Gestapo headquarters.’

‘What is Alarm Command exactly?’ I said.

‘Killers.’ She shook her head. ‘You wouldn’t want to fall into their hands. Their brief was to scare Von Greis: to scare him badly enough to convince him that Himmler was more powerful than Goering, that he should fear the Gestapo before he should fear the Prime Minister. After all, hadn’t Himmler taken control of the Gestapo away from Goering in the first place? And then there was the case of Goering’s former chief of Gestapo, Diels, being sold down the river by his former master. They said all of these things to Von Greis. They told him that the same would happen to him, and that his only chance was to cooperate, otherwise he would find himself facing the displeasure of the Reichsführer S S. That would mean a KZ for sure. Of course, Von Greis was convinced. What man in their hands would not have been? He gave Paul everything he had. Paul took possession of a number of documents which he spent several evenings examining at home. And then he was killed.’

‘And the documents were stolen.’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you know something of what was in these documents?’

‘Not in any detail. I never saw them myself. I only know what he told me. He said that they proved beyond all shadow of a doubt, that Six was in bed with organized crime.’