‘I suppose some might put it that way. But I wasn’t important. I don’t suppose Hitler even knew my name, and I swear that I had no knowledge of the atrocities discovered by the Allies.’

‘Of course you didn’t. None of you did.’ Wilde couldn’t help but understand why the obfuscation and denial of these Nazis made Mozes Heck so trigger-happy.

‘I accept your sarcasm, Herr Professor. But I was a mere functionary, obeying orders from Dr Goebbels. It was Himmler and Kaltenbrunner and Müller who were the devils.’

‘That’s a matter for the court. That’s not why I’m here.’

‘But I have been told I am to be taken to Nuremberg to be tried for war crimes, and I don’t understand why. If anything, I am the victim of a war crime, Professor. For weeks in Moscow, in the Lubyanka, I was incarcerated in a cell one metre square. I had to stand or sit down hunched up, even to sleep. My sole companion was a fly. At first I wanted to kill it, then it became my only friend. It was as if I was already in my grave – except at least in my true grave I would be lying down. In the Lubyanka I was kept in a standing coffin. My spine and joints have not recovered.’

‘If you believe you have been mistreated, it is something you should bring up when you go to Nuremberg. You are to have legal representation there. Talk to your lawyer about these matters.’

‘But why am I to be tried? Why am I classed with Goering and Streicher and Kaltenbrunner?’

Wilde had difficulty retaining his equanimity. This man was as cold as ice. He had supported a regime steeped in bloodlust and cruelty – yet here he was, complaining about his lot.

‘Herr Fritzsche, all I want from you is your version of events in the last days of the bunker, particularly your recollections surrounding the supposed death and cremation of Hitler. Tell me about April thirtieth. Did you see Hitler’s body?’

‘No, sir, but I was told that he had shot himself and that his new wife had taken poison.’

‘Did you see the funeral pyre?’

‘No, sir. Not then.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, I did not see their bodies burning. But when I was a prisoner of the Russians they took me there and showed me ashes which they said were the remains. They also showed me photographs of corpses and asked me to identify them.’

‘Were the photographs identifiable as Hitler and Eva Braun?’

‘No, sir. Nor were they the same as the ashes I had seen. The pictures were of fully formed but burnt corpses. It was easy to identify Dr Goebbels, however. Also his wife Magda and their six children.’

‘How many bodies did you see?’

‘Fifteen. I counted them. Hitler and Fräulein Braun were not among them.’