Instead she was taken on a hellish five-hundred-kilometer, two-night train journey to a small hotel outside Stuttgart, where she found herself sharing a room with a girl called Heidi, from Bohemia. Over the next two days, around fifty other young women joined them. They had come from all over the Greater Reich, all attractive and, it soon appeared to Leni, intelligent. Nobody knew why they were there, and the guards and hotel staff were not forthcoming. The consensus was that as all of them were in some kind of trouble, they were presumably being groomed for a task that might serve as atonement.

On the third morning, a tall thirty-year-old man wearing the uniform of an SS untersturmführer walked into the dining room during breakfast. The room went quiet as the officer walked slowly along the tables, and Leni noticed that many of the girls flinched as the uniform passed directly behind them. The officer stopped at the picture of the Führer that hung above the buffet table, saluted it with a stiff Heil Hitler, and turned to address them.

“Ladies,” he began, a little too loudly, “ladies, you are here because there is a vital task we want you to perform for the Reich. You have been selected because you possess characteristics that are rare and therefore extremely useful for your Führer and the Fatherland. However, I should tell you that everything that takes place here is absolutely secret. If any of you talk about it, then you will all—all—be sent to a concentration camp.”

He allowed himself to look down at their faces, all of which were registering some form of shock, except that of Leni, who raised her eyebrows at him mockingly. He looked away. Pathetic. She had always suspected that most of these SS men were little more than their uniforms, and this one seemed especially hollow. He cleared his throat before continuing.

“Over the next week, myself and a team of experts will be assessing you to see whether you match up to the rigorous standards required for the task. I am afraid that only twenty of you will be selected….”

This caused a murmur throughout the room. The officer lifted his hand to silence them.

“The other thirty have nothing to fear. They will be sent back home, where they will be put under twenty-four-hour surveillance. Believe me, that is no fun, and you will earn far more freedom if you are selected. The tests will be hard, and I expect you all to try your best for the good of your Fatherland. You should be honored even to have gotten this far, but I regret only the very best will be chosen. Are there any questions?”

Although the girls started to speak all at once, it was Leni whose voice carried above the din.

“What is this task? There seems little point in taking all these tests if we don’t know what they’re for!”