‘Ah, so that is what this is about. But why would you suspect Julius of being involved in such a thing?’

‘Just answer the question, Schirach. Helping me may even help you when it comes to being sentenced.’

‘I am not trying to save my neck.’

‘Of course you want to live. You’re not even forty. You have young children, a beautiful young wife. Would you not wish to stay alive for them?’

He shook his head slowly. ‘I will not be allowed to live. We will all be shot by firing squad. The Russians are involved in this forthcoming trial and they will not allow anyone to survive. And even if drawing you a map to Hitler’s hideout were to be the difference between life and death, then I would have to die, because I have no idea where Hitler is.’

‘Where would you hide him?’

‘In a prison cell in the deepest dungeon in Germany. And I would leave him there to rot.’

‘Don’t get funny with me. You clearly know southern Bavaria and the Austrian Tyrol as well as any man. I have reason to believe that Hitler is hidden there, probably high in his beloved mountains. The question is where?’

Schirach looked helpless and uplifted his palms. At that moment Wilde felt certain he really didn’t have a clue, either about Hitler’s fate or the whereabouts of Julius Boden.

‘I think of needles and haystacks, Professor. If Hitler is hidden in that region, you could take an army and search for years and you would not find him. If he is there, he will be in a specially made bunker, jah? So someone must have made it. Find the person who made it.’

Or find Boden.

Wilde stood up. The cell was cramped and airless and he was going to get no more out of the self-satisfied aristocrat whose remorse was about as genuine as ersatz coffee. ‘Thank you, Herr von Schirach,’ he said.

‘Please, before you go, could you somehow get a message to Henriette – my wife – and our children?’

‘Where are they?’

‘Perhaps at home in Kochel, perhaps in an internment camp. I wish I knew.’

‘Well, I don’t know if Colonel Andrus would allow me to do that, but I will ask him.’

‘Just tell them that I love them and send them kisses and let them know that I am in good spirits.’

‘I’ll do my best.’

‘You know I am sure you are talking to everyone who was in the bunker, but don’t neglect Hitler’s secretaries. Sometimes these women overhear things. If anyone knows Hitler’s fate, it could be one of them – particularly Joanna Wolf and Christa Schroeder. They were at the heart of Hitler’s secret world for many years. They are probably still loyal to him, but they might let some piece of information slip.’

‘Where are they?’