“Which is why I need your help,” said Albert. “I cannot stand to live here one more day with Mother and Gretel and be treated like a child. I’m ready to be like you. I’m ready to be a man.”

“Are you?” said Helmut. Albert was hardly SS material, but then again, beggars could not be choosers. With the losses that all the armed forces had suffered of late, even scrawny teenagers had been sent to the front lines. Albert, he knew, wouldn’t last ten minutes in battle, but Helmut could use an assistant, and if he took Albert under his wing the boy could get his wish to join the SS and maybe Helmut could protect his brother.

“You could make a call,” said Albert in a pleading voice. “I know you could.”

And so Helmut had made the call, and worse, he had taken his brother, Albert, on that final journey to Dachau. Himmler had radioed from the north of Germany, where he was fleeing from German forces, having been denounced by Hitler for attempting to negotiate peace with the Allies a few days earlier. “Go to Dachau,” he said. “Await my message. If I must, I will tell you the final secret of Projekt Alchemie.”

As they made their way south, Helmut explained to his brother that Himmler had a special place in his heart for Dachau. It was where his quest after alchemy began, and even though the first “alchemists” he met there turned out to be frauds, it was where he hit upon the idea that made Projekt Alchemie a reality. With the Allied troops closing in fast, Helmut and his brother would close up the last branch of Projekt Alchemie that operated in the laboratory there.

When they arrived, most of the guards and staff had left. Helmut led Albert into the main building and found it empty. In the laboratory they found a small amount of gold, which Helmut pocketed, then the two men destroyed everything that might give a hint of the true purpose of that room.

“Do you hear shouting?” said Albert as they left the laboratory behind. Helmut could hear the fear in his brother’s voice. They could still escape the Allies, he thought. He could get Albert safely to Switzerland. But not yet.

“You stay here,” said Helmut, leaving Albert in an empty corridor while he went to the radio room. Using Himmler’s private settings he enciphered a message on the Enigma machine and sent it out. “Dachau laboratory secured. Allies nearby. I await your instructions.” Helmut knew that he could keep the secret of Projekt Alchemie safe. Even if he failed to evade the Allies, at worst he might spend a little time in prison. Himmler, however, had no delusions about his fate. If he did not share the secret, soon enough it would be lost forever.