‘I suspect you’re a lot better off than the prisoners your people held in Bergen-Belsen or Auschwitz,’ Wilde said.

Kempka was silent. He had no adequate response, but if he felt shame at what his beloved master had done, it was hard to detect.

‘So you and your comrades carried Eva and Adolf upstairs from the bunker. What happened then?’

‘We laid them on the ground, side by side, in a depression, about three metres from the entrance to the bunker and poured the petrol over them. This was difficult and dangerous because the Russians were shelling us all the time by then. God knows how none of us were killed or wounded.’

‘Who was there?’

‘Myself, Günsche, Linge, Stumpfegger, Bormann. Oh, and we had been joined by Reichsminister Goebbels. So there were six of us. But the shelling became so intense that it was too dangerous to venture out to light the fire to cremate the bodies. We huddled in the doorway, trying to work out how to do it. I found a rag, doused it in a little petrol, set it alight, and threw it. And the flames went up. As one, the six of us came to attention and saluted our fallen leader, then with our heads bowed, we quickly went back down into the bunker. And that was that. The end of a glorious age.’

‘So six of you did this. Well, we know where you are, Kempka, and we know that Goebbels is dead and Bormann is missing. Do you know where he is?’

‘I have no idea except that he tried to escape Berlin on foot.’

‘What about the other three?’

‘Linge left the bunker with me on May the first – the day after the Führer’s death. But we became separated. I know that Stumpfegger was with Bormann, but I don’t know what became of either of them. Probably dead, because the chance of evading the Soviets at that time was very slim. And, as I told you, I don’t know where Günsche is. Perhaps you have more information?’

Wilde did not answer. In fact, he did know that both Linge and Günsche were in Soviet hands. He had no idea about Stump-fegger or Bormann though. He nodded to his companion. ‘Do you have any questions for the prisoner, Lieutenant Heck?’

‘I would just say that it is very convenient that you never saw Hitler’s face, and that the other men who supposedly carried him to his cremation are either dead or missing. Very convenient. You are the only one in Allied hands who can tell us this story.’