‘I was born in 1910; my mother died when I was five. A year later, my father went to fight in the Great War. I don’t recall him even saying goodbye to me. I was looked after by nannies and always felt abandoned by him. He returned in 1918 but remained a distant figure. We were very comfortably off: not rich, but with a nice house in Berlin and holidays in Switzerland. We certainly wanted for nothing. Father was in manufacturing, household equipment, that kind of thing. But as the German economy crashed, he lost everything. The business closed, he had to sell the house and we ended up in a rented apartment in Wedding, a less pleasant part of Berlin.

‘I found work in an office and Father became obsessed with the idea that I should marry well. When I was twenty, I met Karl-Heinz. I was working in a legal office on Fasanenstrasse and he was one of the high-flying lawyers there. He’s ten years older than me and an attractive man, not handsome in the conventional sense but very smart and athletic, and he did have a charm about him, along with ambition and drive. When Karl-Heinz wants something, he invariably gets it. Not long after we met, he decided he wanted me. I wasn’t at all sure; I felt I wanted someone who was maybe more cultured and sensitive and possibly closer to my own age, but he was very determined and he had an ally in my father, who not only thought Karl-Heinz was wonderful but also saw him as a route out of the hardship we found ourselves in.

‘So against my better judgement – though I say that with hindsight, of course – we married. That was in 1932. Until then we’d never really discussed politics; it wasn’t something that Karl-Heinz seemed interested in. But all that changed after the Nazis came to power in 1933. He joined them and became a passionate Nazi, giving up his law job and becoming an officer in the SS. I cannot describe how terrible he became, though I have to tell you he’s always been very proper with me. I have no doubt he loves me and cares about me. Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to have children, and unlike many men in his position he has never held this against me: he’s paid for the best medical treatment and has always been sympathetic.