The government had requisitioned the schloss and turned it into what they called the Institute of Developmental Psychology. You see, they didn’t just want to kill all us kids who didn’t fit the mould. They wanted to use us, alive and dead. The dead had their brains pickled and dissected. The living had their brains fucked with too, only we got to live with the consequences.’ Holtz reached into the inside pocket of his overcoat and took out a packet of slim dark cigars. He shook one out of the packet and offered it to the younger man, who declined with a shake of the head and a wave of the hand. Holtz unwrapped it and took his time lighting it.

‘You know how scientists do their experiments with rats and monkeys? Well, in Schloss Hochenstein they used us kids.’ Holtz fiddled with his cigar, using it as a prop rather than smoking it.

‘The smart kids, like me and your granddad, we learned quickly. So we survived. But it was a living hell. How do you think the Nazi interrogators learned their skills? They practised on us. We would be deprived of sleep for weeks at a time, till we were hallucinating and so disorientated we could no longer speak our own names. We were given electric shocks to the genitals to see how long we could keep a secret. The girls were raped before and after puberty to explore the emotional effects. Sometimes the boys were forced to take part in the rapes, so their reactions could be observed. They forced rubber tubes down our throats then poured water straight into our lungs. Your grandfather and I, we survived that. God knows how. For days, I couldn’t eat a thing, my gullet felt like one long bruise. But there were a lot who didn’t make it. They drowned.

‘They used to stage exhibitions. They’d bring in doctors from other hospitals, SS officers, local officials. They’d pick some poor fucking imbecile, some kid with Down’s syndrome, or a spastic. The doctors would parade them in front of the audience, talking about how they must be exterminated for the benefit of the people. We were seen as a drain on the resources of the state. They’d say things like, “A dozen soldiers can be trained for what it costs to keep one of these vegetables in an institution for a month.”