Bern, Switzerland

23 March 1943

Dear Karl-Heinrich,

I have so much to say I hardly know where to begin. I think perhaps the best thing to do would be for me to recount everything in the order it happened.

However, first I need to acknowledge that if you are reading this letter then I hope you will already be aware of the part I have played in whatever fate awaits you, a fate you fully deserve.

I should also acknowledge that to an extent, I am to blame for the predicament I have found myself in. When you gave up being a lawyer and joined the SS, I should have left you, or at the very least objected. When you started to espouse the most appalling views, I should have divorced you. When you treated the Goldmanns so dreadfully, I should have done something about it. That I didn’t is a source of considerable regret and shame.

Then the war started and you were in your element. When you started boasting of your part in the massacres of Jews and others, I decided I’d had enough, but by then it was very difficult for me to do much about it. I had no means of my own and divorcing an SS officer would have had serious consequences for me.

I was ashamed of myself for doing nothing, and then, in late 1940, two things happened. The first was when you were in Poland, not long after you’d been home on leave. I was getting ready for bed one night when I heard the maid scream. I went into the corridor to see what was happening and she was in a real state: she’d seen a mouse in her room. She’d chased it out and it had gone under the door of your study. We went in to look for it, and saw something dart under the desk. We managed to move the desk and pulled away the carpet to reveal the floorboards, one of which had a hole in it large enough to get two fingers in. I did this and was surprised at how easily I could pull the board up. I spotted a package wrapped in cloth hidden beneath it and realised it could be important, but told the maid I couldn’t see anything and we’d better put everything back. The following day when she was out shopping, I took the package out.

You know of course what was in it: the details of a Swiss bank account in your name, held at Bank Leu on Paradeplatz in Zurich. The other item was a diary you had kept from August 1939 to October 1940. Over the next few days I read every word of that diary. The events you wrote about, the casual way you recorded them, the detailed descriptions – they were so shocking I could only manage a few pages at a time. But when I finished reading, I determined I would do something with that diary. If nothing else, it was proof that you had committed terrible and unforgivable crimes against innocent civilians. I decided I must use it to help ensure you were held to account for these crimes.

Of course, there was always the possibility that when you were home on leave you could remove the diary, so I decided to copy every word of it, to transcribe all of its contents.

We’ll come back to the diary soon, but just think, Karl-Heinrich – you were undone by a mouse!

I mentioned two events in late 1940. The second one – and you’ll understand if I’m somewhat vague here – was that I met a person from a neutral country who had links with Allied intelligence. To cut a long story short, I became an Allied agent. Again, I do not propose to go into detail, but I want you to know I’ve been an active and effective agent for them. I have done what I can to undermine the Nazis. My trip to Greifswald, of which you were so proud, was simply to provide me with cover to assist the Allies in their spying on the nearby Peenemünde rocket base. The base was destroyed in February and I’d like to think I played no small part in that.

But after that happened, I decided that now was the time to leave Germany. I’d been an agent for over two years and I felt my luck could run out soon.

So I returned to Berlin, and with the help of your dear friend Konrad, I was able to obtain papers to allow me to travel to Switzerland. I told him it was to collect gold you had there and bring it back, promising him his cut. His greed ensured I received an excellent set of papers.

I took the train to Zurich, where, thanks to your paperwork and the fact that I was able to prove I was your wife, I was able to access your account. It is now empty, Karl-Heinrich, and I have used the funds to open an account of my own that will ensure I never want for money. I used some of it to pay for a new identity as a Swiss citizen. It was expensive, but the identity is excellent: no one will ever be able to link me with Sophia von Naundorf.

From Zurich I travelled to Geneva, which is where the International Red Cross is based. You see, the diary was still under the floorboards when it was time for me to leave Berlin, so I was able to take the original with me as well as the copy I made. My idea was to hand the diary over to them along with this letter for you, as I understood they delivered letters for prisoners. But this did not work out. The Red Cross could not have been less interested – they said they couldn’t deliver letters to German prisoners in the Soviet Union, and as for the diary, either they didn’t understand or more likely they didn’t care.

But when I left, a secretary followed me out. She said she’d overheard what had happened: why didn’t I take the matter to the Soviet Embassy in Bern?

So I took her advice and travelled to Bern – I have to tell you, Karl-Heinrich, Switzerland is the most peaceful country, with wonderful scenery, and travelling through it by train (first class, thanks to your generosity!) is a most satisfying experience.

At first the Soviet Embassy was rather sceptical. I saw a junior diplomat to begin with, but he referred the matter to someone more senior, and then someone else investigated it in detail. It seems they were able to check out some of the facts in your diary, and especially the entry from January 1940 regarding Kielce. I am sure you remember it, but just in case, I am enclosing in this letter another copy I have made of that entry.

You may wish to read it, Karl-Heinrich. It has helped seal your fate.

The Soviet officials have been most helpful, even enthusiastic. The diary will help them identify a number of war criminals, including you. You said in your last letter that you were going to disguise yourself as a junior Wehrmacht officer. They have been able to check with their comrades responsible for the prisoners captured at Gumrak, and they now know that Oberleutnant Karl Naundorf is actually SS Brigadeführer Karl-Heinrich von Naundorf. You really ought to have been more imaginative in adopting another identity, but then I guess your arrogance got the better of you.

So there we are, Karl-Heinrich. The Soviets assure me that for security reasons they will only show you this letter in the moments before your execution, so that you will not be able to divulge its contents to anyone.

My new life starts now, as yours comes to an end.

Sophia