The general’s look was scathing. ‘Ladies. You’re joking, of course. They’d have certainly been nothing more than common prostitutes. He introduces them to people as actresses, but prostitutes is what they are. Streicher is behind most of the organized prostitution in this city.’ He opened his box-file and started to leaf through the complaint-sheets.

‘Indecent assaults, criminal damage, hundreds of charges of corruption — Streicher runs this city like his personal kingdom, and gets away with it.’

‘The rape charges sound interesting,’ I said. ‘What happened there?’

‘No evidence offered. The victims were either bullied or bought. You see, Streicher is a very rich man. Quite apart from what he makes as a district governor, selling favours, offices even, he makes a fortune off that lousy newspaper of his. It’s got a circulation of half a million, which at thirty pfennigs a copy adds up to 150,000 Reichsmarks a week.’ Korsch whistled. ‘And that’s not counting what he makes from the advertising. Oh yes, Streicher can buy himself an awful lot of favours.’

‘Anything more serious than the rape charges?’

‘You mean, has he murdered anyone?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, we won’t count the lynchings of the odd Jew here and there. Streicher likes to organize a nice pogrom for himself now and then. Quite apart from anything else, it gives him a chance to pick up a bit of extra loot. And we’ll discount the girl who died in his house at the hands of a backstreet angel-maker. Streicher wouldn’t be the first senior Party member to procure an illegal abortion. That leaves two unsolved homicides which point the finger at his having been involved.

‘One, a waiter at a party Streicher went to, who decided to choose that occasion to commit suicide. A witness saw Streicher walking in the grounds with the waiter less than twenty minutes before the man was found drowned in the pond. The other, a young actress acquainted with Streicher, whose naked body was found in Luitpoldhain Park. She had been flogged to death with a leather whip. You know, I saw the body. There wasn’t a centimetre of skin left on her.’

He sat down again, apparently satisfied with the effect his revelations had had on Korsch and myself. Even so he could not resist adding a few more salacious details as they occurred to him.

‘And then there is Streicher’s collection of pornography, which he boasts is the largest in Nuremberg. Boasting is what Streicher is best at: the number of illegitimate children he has fathered, the number of wet-dreams he’s had that week, how many boys he has whipped that day. It’s even the sort of detail he includes in his public speeches.’