End of Spies by Alex Gerlis (best free ereader txt) 📗

ought to know about it anyway. He said he had a contact who lived in Tiergarten, a schoolteacher called Willi Kühn. Kühn had also been a KPD comrade, though he’d left the party in 1930, and because of his profession his membership had been under a false name, which I understand was not uncommon: Hoffman used an assumed name too.

‘In April, Hoffmann bumped into Kühn in the Tiergarten and they had a coded conversation, the type where one tries to ascertain which side the other is on. Hoffman said that once it was clear they were both anti-Nazis, Kühn told him this story. He said that he had grown up in a small town in Saxony and one of his childhood friends was the son of his mother’s best friend. When he moved to Berlin, he met up with this friend and was horrified to discover he was now a prominent Nazi, but he said he allowed the friendship to continue because he never knew when it would come in handy. Sure enough, in 1941, Kühn almost lost his job because some pupils at his school informed on him and said he made negative remarks about the war and displayed no enthusiasm for Hitler. He contacted his old friend, who interceded on his behalf. Because this man was so important, he says not only was his job safe, but he was even promoted!’

‘I think you omitted to tell them the name of this prominent Nazi, Comrade.’

‘Have you heard of Martin Bormann?’

‘Yes, wasn’t he…’

‘…effectively Hitler’s deputy.’ Gurevich nodded. ‘He was his private secretary and head of the Nazi Party machinery. He had the rank of Reichsleiter – so RLB stands for Reichsleiter Bormann. Do you realise how important he is?’

Hanne nodded for Gurevich to tell them.

‘Reichsleiter was the second highest rank in the Nazi regime, after that of Führer, and by the end of the war there were only around twenty of them left. More to the point, Bormann is perhaps the most senior Nazi unaccounted for. Hitler committed suicide, of course, as did Goebbels and Himmler. Rudolf Hess had fled to Britain during the war, as you know. Other senior Nazis like Göring, Streicher, Jodl, Kaltenbrunner, von Ribbentrop, Keitel and Seyss-Inquart are awaiting trial. There are plenty of senior Nazis at liberty, especially from the SS, but of the leadership – those who ran things here in Berlin – Bormann must be the most important one. Carry on, Comrade Kapitan.’

‘When Kühn met Hoffman in the Tiergarten in April, he said he’d recently been summoned to see Bormann, who told him he was making plans to escape from Berlin, “should the eventuality arise”. The escape would depend on how matters turned out, because he would have to take his chances if and when they arose – you understand I’m reading from my notes here. Bormann said that his main concern was getting out of Berlin – he believed that would be the most perilous part of any escape – but he’d made plans for once he was away from the city. He told Kühn that he had set up or was involved in something called the Kestrel Line, which was an escape route that would take him south and from there hopefully to South America.’

‘Hang on.’ Hanne was leaning forward, a frown on her face. ‘This Hoffman is seriously asking us to believe that one of the top Nazis in the regime divulged his secret escape plans to a schoolteacher?’

‘If I may answer, Hanne,’ said Gurevich. ‘You are right to question this, but we need to consider what the situation was like in Berlin in April. It must have been hell: we were throwing everything we had at the city, and the RAF was bombing it too. After being assured this was a thousand-year Reich, most people realised it would do well to last another thousand hours. Bormann himself would have known how bad things were and was probably grateful to have an old friend he trusted he could talk to.’

Fyodorov nodded in agreement. ‘Also, Comrade Kommissar, he probably thought Kühn owed him after he saved him in 1941. Kühn said Bormann asked for two favours. One was to act as a conduit for messages: if he received a message from an Else, he was to know it was from Bormann – that was the name of Bormann’s half-sister, whom Kühn knew. And if someone approached him asking about a friend called Graf, then he would know he should pass any message on to them. But no one ever approached him – no message from an Else or anyone asking about Graf. He mentioned a Wolfgang Steiner who was a senior Nazi Party official: Bormann told Kühn he was to trust him if he ever contacted him.’

‘And the other favour?’

‘Bormann gave him some papers and some American dollars. Kühn said the papers were identity papers for Bormann to use, and he thinks the dollars were counterfeit. He says that as soon as the Red Army entered the city, he was terrified they’d find these things on him, so he burnt them. When the British moved into West Berlin, they commandeered his apartment, so he went to live with his daughter in Wedding. We released Paul Hoffman, because he was clearly no Nazi, and in fact he is now working for our police service in the Soviet sector. When I closed his file, I also made those notes on Wolfgang Steiner’s file – it showed he was also unaccounted for. I apologise that they were not more extensive.’

‘And you didn’t think to report this intelligence about Martin Bormann?’

‘I did think about it; in fact I sent a note to be placed on his file, but I understand it got lost. With hindsight, I should have perhaps reported the matter to my superior, but I was so busy I—’

‘And the other initials?’

‘FFM stands for Frankfurt am Main; RLB, as you know, is for Reichsleiter Bormann. The V, according to my notes, stands for