‘My Fuehrer, these brave soldiers are all orphans of the savage war inflicted on us by our enemies. They have lost everything, but still they are proud National Socialists. They have come from many different parts of the Reich to celebrate your birthday, and to volunteer to defend to the very end this great capital city of Berlin!’
One of the boys began to pucker his brow and shake his head, either in disbelief or disapproval, but quickly decided it was not worth the effort and went back to looking sullen. Hitler shuffled along the line, accompanied by the cameras, taking each boy by the hand, not saying a word. One of the younger boys in the middle of the line had golden hair and a less weary expression than the rest. Hitler patted his cheek affectionately and turned to the next, but Goebbels intercepted him to whisper yet again in his ear. Again without a word, Hitler returned to pat the child’s cheek, this time right under the eye of the hastily repositioned cameras before moving silently on. Then it was all over and Hitler was walking past on his way out. As he did so he grasped Hencke’s arm, leaning on it heavily. ‘You must have tea with me, in a little while. An orderly will show you down.’ With that he departed, dragging his left leg behind him.
No sooner had the hunched back of Hitler disappeared than the conversation started once again, much of it the formalities of goodbye as many made a scarcely disguised dash for the exit. The exodus brought Himmler and Goering together for the first time.
‘Must rush. Armies to command and battles to fight,’ Himmler explained, his reedy voice dripping in sarcasm as he mimicked the Fuehrer’s words.
‘See you in hell, Heinrich,’ Goering snapped, ignoring the proffered gloved hand.
Within seconds both were gone, and within minutes at least half of the remaining guests had followed. The boys still stood in line; no one had told them they could move. Hencke wondered how many of them understood what this grim little ceremony had been about, or why they had been brought from what was left of their homes to this place. And how many of them would be alive in a week? Perhaps they would all be swinging from lamp posts, like candles on a birthday cake.
‘Bormann, I’m glad I caught you before you … disappeared for the evening.’
Martin Bormann, Hitler’s personal secretary and deputy leader of the Party, looked less than pleased at the interruption. He was leaning close to one of the secretaries and chatting in a tendentiously informal fashion as they prepared to leave the Ehrenhof. He was notorious for his double life. Within the Bunker he was the soul of efficiency, the most loyal and devoted of all Hitler’s entourage who was a master at controlling the floods of paperwork and information that still cascaded towards the Fuehrer for his personal attention. As such, even those who disliked him intensely – and they constituted a large majority – were forced to admit his worth in the smooth running-of affairs, particularly when the city was falling apart. But once out of the Bunker he was a braggart, a drunk and a womanizer who spent long evenings lost in various corners of the vast Reich Chancellery cellar. By the way his hand was pawing the arm of the secretary, he had plans for this evening too, although as Goebbels advanced on him he was obliged to release her and with obvious reluctance wave her into a corner out of earshot.
‘Any news of Hencke?’ Goebbels enquired.
‘Christ, you only asked me at four o’clock this morning. D’you think everyone in the records offices is an insomniac like you? What’s the almighty hurry?’
‘I want a double-check on Hencke. I’m not going to announce his arrival to the whole world until I know everything there is to know about him. I don’t want to know if he scratches his ass, I want to know which hand he uses.’
‘Why so picky? Hasn’t just stopped you offering him to Der Chef like a tasty piece of birthday cake. Bit late to start having doubts, isn’t it?’
‘Some risks have to be taken to keep up the Fuehrer’s morale. But that’s no excuse to relax and forget what we’re here to do.’
‘Anyway, you’re out of luck. All the record departments are having the shit blasted out of them by the bombing. The Wehrmacht offices received a direct hit last week, all their paperwork’s in chaos. It’ll take days to find anything in that mess.’
Goebbels sighed peevishly. ‘Then check the civilian records – birth, school, university. He’s a teacher, for heaven’s sake, there’s got to be some information on him. Get the Buergermeister of Eger out of his bug-ridden bed and looking for what we need. It’s called using your imagination, Bormann.’
‘OK, OK,’ he muttered, looking ruefully in the direction of the secretary. She would have to wait for a little while. ‘You really are the most suspicious bastard I know. Can’t you just trust in your good luck?’
‘I don’t trust to luck, Bormann, any more than I trust people. They have an unpleasant habit of letting you down. You make your own luck in this world, and your own mistakes. So I’m not going to launch him as the saviour of the German nation only to discover that he’s some stinking Jew-lover. or drowned his baby sister in her bath. I want him checked out. Now!’
‘The Fuehrer is ready for you, Captain.’
Hencke started as an orderly plucked him by the sleeve. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Why, to the Bunker.’
Hencke tried to compose himself as he was guided once more into the cellar and onwards through a bewildering maze of tunnels and underground corridors, but he found the task difficult. A lethargy had settled over his wits and limbs as Goebbels had performed the introduction, the tension swamping his faculties. He needed fresh air and a moment to think, but he was to get the chance of neither. As they proceeded downward, into the bowels of Berlin, everywhere there seemed to be checkpoints, guards armed with machine pistols and hand grenades, studying the papers and identity of all who wished to pass. They walked through a dank, bare concrete tunnel more than a hundred metres long which dripped with water and reminded Hencke of a rabbit’s warren in autumn, while waiting at the end was another set of guards wanting to know who and why, double-checking everything. Every time his papers were scrutinized, his face examined, he felt another layer of determination and fortitude being stripped away, leaving him like a rabbit trapped in a beam of light. Except rabbits have somewhere to run and for Hencke, in the tunnels, there was no way out. Every step further underground seemed like another step into his own grave.
Finally the orderly moved aside to allow him past a heavy steel door, and he was inside the Vorbunker, the staff quarters. He entered a narrow corridor which also served as the dining-room and rest area and, as he did so, he almost choked. The atmosphere was fetid from the body heat of people packed into the tight space. Twenty or so men and women, not all in uniform, seemed to be making strenuous efforts to recover from the general misery of the previous hour in the Ehrenhof by holding their own private celebration. Hitler was strictly teetotal and there had been no champagne served at the formal reception; down here the staff were making up for lost time. The clink of glasses and the music of a waltz being scratched out from a gramophone somewhere nearby mingled with a loud voice as one of the men related a story of the early days in Munich. The room had meagrely decorated walls and bare overhead lighting which blanched the faces of all colour. It resembled any of the low-life night clubs or dive bars Hencke had visited as a young man, particularly the unlicensed ones. But the memory served only to remind him how far he was from home, deep underground, in an unnatural world, surrounded by people with ghoulish faces, like goblins in a gruesome fairy tale. Suddenly he was overwhelmed with the realization that it was all impossible. It was madness, had always been madness, an aberration. He knew now that he could not possibly succeed. Did it really matter any more? Perhaps he was already beginning to catch the Kellerkrebs.