“At some stage—I’m not sure when, because Friedrich stopped writing to me after a while—he assumed command of the camp. And it’s safe to say he kept things going just as they were. He did write to me once, to say Himmler had visited and how happy he was with the way things were progressing at Janowska. The camp was liberated by the Russians in July 1944. Wilhaus is dead now. I think the Russians killed him. Fritz Gebauer, who had been camp commandant before Wilhaus, was tried at Dachau and sentenced to life imprisonment. He’s in Landsberg Prison. But Friedrich escaped to Germany, where he stayed until the end of the war. We had some contact during this time. But the marriage was over, and had it not been for the fact that I am a Roman Catholic, I would certainly have divorced him.

“In late 1945, he disappeared from Munich and I didn’t hear from him again until March 1946. He was on the run. He contacted me and asked for money, so that he could go away. He was in contact with an old comrades’ association—the ODESSA. And he was awaiting a new identity. I have money of my own, Herr Gunther. So I agreed. I wanted him out of my life, forever. At the time, it did not occur to me that I would marry again. My scars were not as you see them now. A surgeon has worked hard to make my face more presentable. I spent most of my remaining fortune paying him.”

“It was worth it,” I observed. “He did a good job.”

“It’s kind of you to say so. And now I’ve met someone. A decent man whom I should like to marry. So I want to know if Friedrich is dead or alive. You see, he said he’d write to me when he got to South America. That’s where he was going. That’s where most of them go. But he never did. There were others escaping with Friedrich who did contact their families and who are now safe in Argentina and Brazil. But not my husband. I’ve taken advice from Cardinal Josef Frings, in Cologne, and he tells me that there can be no remarriage in the Roman Catholic Church without there being some evidence of Friedrich’s death. And I thought, you having been in the SS yourself, you might have a better chance of finding out if he’s alive or dead. If he’s in South America.”

“You’re well informed,” I said.

“Not me,” she said. “My fiancé. That’s what he told me, anyway.”

“And what does he do?”

“He’s a lawyer.”

“I might have known.”

“What do you mean?”