‘Does it matter if I am?’

‘No. I just wondered. I know crimes were committed against them, terrible crimes, but they were not my responsibility. I knew nothing of such things and I am certain the Führer didn’t either. Nor did Ritter von Greim.’

‘But you won the Iron Cross? That doesn’t sound like the sort of reward given to a civilian.’

‘I was awarded it twice, in fact. Second class and first class. For my work as a test pilot, you see. Not for doing any harm to anyone.’

Wilde could see she was becoming flustered. She talked faster and with greater animation. Sometimes her face formed into a smile, but it looked rehearsed and insincere. Her hands were agitated and her big eyes darted between her two interrogators.

‘So let’s get back to the bunker,’ Heck said. ‘You were there how long?’

‘Two days – April twenty-sixth to the twenty-eighth. We left two days before the Führer and his bride took their lives.’

‘What did you do during your time in the bunker?’

‘Well I ate and I slept, of course. I played with the beautiful Goebbels children, and I read stories to them. I became very friendly with their mother, Magda. I also got to know Eva Braun – Eva Hitler, of course. She was very sweet to me. Everywhere in that bunker there was a terrible atmosphere of doom. It felt like a sarcophagus. But then, out of nowhere, there was dancing and drinking and laughing. A lot of drinking, and then tears and gloom.’

‘You saw Hitler again?’

‘Once more, alone in his sitting room, and he looked even worse. He handed me two cyanide capsules and said they were to give me the choice of what to do. The Führer said that he was determined that he and Eva would take their own lives and their bodies would be reduced to ash. Saying farewell to him was the most terrible thing I have ever had to do.’

‘How did you get out?’

‘With great difficulty. The shelling had become incessant so that even the depths of the bunker shook. Concrete and plaster fell all around us and the explosions were deafening. Robert Ritter von Greim and I had decided we would stay until the end and share the fate of everyone else, but Hitler had other plans. He believed Himmler had betrayed him and he wanted Robert to go and have him punished for trying to do a deal independently with the Allies. That seemed impossible. Getting in to Berlin was difficult enough – how were we to get out again?’

‘But you did?’