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Hitler’s wish that Bormann survive the war. A letter from Hitler himself directed my father to do whatever the Brown Eminence desired. So my father spent his life hiding Martin Bormann.”
    He waited for more.
    â€œBormanns appeared everywhere. Those who searched had plenty to look for, but never the actual man.”
    He vaguely recalled reading about Bormann sightings throughout Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. A few Bormanns even turned themselves in to the authorities, claiming a need for justice in their old age, but all were eventually confirmed as either deranged or delirious.
    â€œWhat does any of that matter anymore?”
    â€œWhat you mean is, why did it matter to Herr Combs.”
    That’s exactly what he meant.
    â€œBormann was no Hitler. The Führer was special. Politicians before him talked down. Bormann talked down. Hitler talked to us.”
    It seemed she wanted to speak her mind, so he let her.
    â€œI’ve watched Hitler speak many times on film. He would parade into a hall to some lively military tune. Oh, I loved that music. He always wore his brownshirt uniform and had the shiniest boots. Such a sight.People stood while he spoke, as they should. He loved them, and they loved him.”
    She was clinging to a vicious fantasy. But if the memory loosened her tongue, he was willing to allow her the luxury.
    â€œWhat happened to Bormann?” he asked again.
    She spat on the floor. “He was a sloven bastard. The Führer made a horrible mistake trusting that one.”
    â€œWhy are you telling me all this?”
    She shrugged. “Why not? As you say, it was a long time ago.”
    â€œCould you—”
    â€œI’m through talking to you.”
    She started to leave the barn, the cat nipping at her heels.
    He tried, “You speak of the past with reverence. Are you a Nazi?”
    She stopped, turned back, and surveyed him with an insolent air of triumph.
    â€œI am a faithful follower of my Führer.”
    And she ambled off.

    His visit with the old woman disturbed him. It was not at all what he’d expected. Never had he thought Martin Bormann, Eva Braun, and Adolf Hitler would be the subjects of their conversation.
    Before leaving Turingia he parked the car under some shade trees and used his smartphone to access the Internet. There he found a concise summary of Martin Bormann’s life.
    Born in Halberstadt on June 17, 1900, the son of a former Prussian regimental sergeant major, Bormann dropped out of school to work on a farming estate in Mecklenburg. After serving briefly as a cannoneer in a field artillery regiment at the end of World War I, he joined the rightist Rossbach Freikorps. He eventually entered the National Socialist Party, becoming its regional press officer in Thuringia and then business manager in 1928. From 1928 to 1930 he was attached to the SA Supreme Command and in October 1933 he became a Reichsleiter of the party. A month later he was elected as a Nazi delegate to the Reichstag. From July 1933 until 1941 he was the chief of cabinet in the office of the deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess, acting as his personal secretary.
    There he began his imperceptible rise to the center of power, slowly acquiring mastery over the Nazi bureaucratic mechanism and gaining Hitler’s personal trust. In addition to administering Hitler’s personal finances, he controlled the Gauleiters andReichsleiters, the men who administered the various lands in the Reich. His brutality, coarseness, lack of culture, and apparent insignificance led top Nazis to underestimate his abilities. His mentor Rudolf Hess’ flight to Britain opened the way for him to step into Hess’ shoes.
    In May 1941 he became head of the party. Until the end of the war, Bormann was the fierce guardian of Nazi orthodoxy. He was an archfanatic when it came to racial policy, anti-Semitism, and the Kirchenkampf, the war between the churches. By the end of 1942 he was