“But this girl, Leni, why didn’t she say something before?”

“According to the records in Moscow, she was arrested near the end of 1944. She had been hiding on a farm near your factory, but somebody betrayed her and she was sent to Belsen. They think she was executed in December. Apparently, the Nazis sent a bill to her parents for the cost of her execution.”

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“Mum?”

She was holding it, cupping it in her hands. It wasn’t the best pinecone, not the most symmetrical, perhaps even a little on the rough side.

“What’s that, Mum? What have you got there?”

She smiled through her tears.

“Oh, nothing much, dear. Just something your father once gave me.”

Historical Notes

The British Free Corps came into being toward the middle of 1943. It was incorporated into the Waffen-SS at the beginning of 1944. Around fifty men joined the BFC, although at any one time there were never more than thirty, the number that Hitler stipulated the corps should reach before it went into action on the Eastern Front. Many of the members of the BFC were either fascists or simpletons, and discipline was a problem.

The British Free Corps met its end in Berlin in May 1945. Some accounts claim that its members did actually fight the Russians, although this is unlikely, as many deserted.

The British had long been aware of the existence of the BFC, as word had got back from POW camps, where the Germans had attempted recruitment drives. After the war, BFC members were tracked down and court-martialed. The sentences were surprisingly lenient, ranging from life sentences to modest fines. The traitor John Amery, however, was famously executed at Wandsworth Prison.

Interested readers can visit www.guywalters.com, where they will find a history of the BFC, complete with photographs, biographies, an extensive bibliography and links to other relevant sites.

However, there is only one place to turn for the complete history of the BFC, and that is Adrian Weale’s excellent Renegades, his definitive account of the corps. They might also find great interest in Patriot Traitors, his comparative biography of John Amery and Sir Roger Casement.

Devotees of the Public Record Office in Kew might wish to know that the records of the courts-martial of, and testimonies by, members of the BFC are contained in the classes WO71 and HO45.

The code used by Lockhart to formulate his letter to “Hattie” is a simplified version of the code invented by MI9, the wartime British secret service that taught the armed forces how to escape, and also how to evade capture. Fans of cryptography will find a full explanation at www.guywalters.com, as well as in From Colditz in Code by J. M. Green, which is out of print.