When Alan had gone, Holmes filled the bowl of his pipe and smoked in one sitting until it was empty.
At length he said “It is striking how much of what Heβ has told us is plausible. We know about the death of Rӧhm, though he has allocated a different cause to it than what was reported in the controlled press. We now know that Otto Günsche is a real person who is in Hitler’s personal bodyguard. We also know that any explanation for Heβ’s flight other than fear has been explored and found wanting. Furthermore, when a return to Germany for a potentially capital trial was put to him, he provided a rational argument for his defence. My inclination accordingly is to state that he is sane to stand trial, but he seems to be too harmless to face a capital punishment.”
“What about the other claims he made: that no body will be found, and of the relationships between Hitler, Heβ, Rӧhm and this Braun woman?”
“We have been unable to find out anything about Madame Braun. The relationships, real or not, are not relevant to the grave events now coming to their conclusion that will be the subject of the trial and, accordingly, we should disregard them for the purposes of deciding whether Heβ should stay in England or return to Germany.”
I drafted a short report to Major Foley to this effect and was unsurprised when Heβ was transported to Germany in October 1945 and put on trial. Events after this followed an uncannily similar course to what Holmes and Heβ had forecast. Heβ lapsed into and out of lucidity in his trial, but when he declared himself fit to be cross-examined, he used the defence he had outlined to us. No one was able to lay claim to having found Hitler’s body though no one seriously questioned that he was dead. Heβ was found guilty of two charges and condemned to life imprisonment, though we understood that the Soviets had pushed for a capital sentence. The Soviets, in fact, pressed for capital sentences against all those found guilty at Nuremburg and for guilty verdicts against those who were in the end found not guilty.
Although matters had largely resolved themselves, I was still intrigued by the lurid allegations made by Heβ. But nowhere was the name Eva Braun mentioned in the months after the end of the War and during the Nuremburg trials.
It was only in the spring of 1947, when Hugh Trevor-Roper published his book The Last Days of Hitler that her very existence and her relationship to Hitler were confirmed. My reader may imagine the frisson of excitement with which I read Trevor-Roper’s book. The book also contained the astounding revelation that Hitler and Braun had married in the ruins of Berlin the day before they took their own lives. This did not of course confirm the relationships between her and Rӧhm, Heβ and Günsche, which were not even hinted at in Trevor-Roper’s book and I can see no way of confirming them myself, as Rӧhm is dead, Heβ is in prison and Günsche remains in Soviet captivity. I was unable to interest Holmes in reading the book, but it did strike me that, in line with Heβ’s prediction, Günsche was very anxious to make sure that Hitler’s body was destroyed. At a time when the whole German state was disintegrating around him, he had arranged for Hitler’s chauffeur, Kempka, to procure 180 litres of petrol – a huge amount at any time, but surely a low priority at such a time – to ensure that all trace of Hitler’s body was destroyed. Why would he do this if not to render impossible any examination of the circumstances behind his death?
My reader may accuse me, even in great old age, of being an incurable seeker of the salacious, but the accusation that Heβ made to Holmes and me about the relationship between Hitler’s lover and other senior members of the National Socialist circle continues to intrigue me. I cannot, however, prove or disprove it with the information I have.
Thus, and it is with a heavy heart, I pass this work incomplete to Pearson, on whom the passing of the years has also taken its toll, to add to his collection of stories which are too outrageous for publication in my lifetime.
Note by the successors of Dr Watson’s literary executors:
Dr John Watson died on 28 October 1950 and the papers containing this work passed back from Pearson to Dr Watson’s eldest son, Edward, who took care to ensure that they were preserved, although he does not appear to have examined them in any way.
On the death of Edward Watson in 1990, the papers were archived at the Public Record Office in Kew and lay neglected until they were passed to me, Henry Durham, late of King’s College, London. I first examined them in the summer of 2015.
The reason Heβ gave for his flight to Scotland in his interview with Holmes and Watson, and the sensational allegation of a chain of sexual relationships between Braun and the trio of Rӧhm, Heβ and Günsche were all completely new revelations although, as any cautious scholar would swiftly point out, the testimony came from a man at the edge of reason rather than being provable facts. Holmes himself and Watson were only able to substantiate that all the people mentioned existed and that Hitler himself was not the sexless, masterful leader which he always took care to be portrayed as.
Writers on Heβ’s flight just before the German invasion of the Soviet Union have all assumed that he was trying to broker a peace deal, however unconvincing that was on the evidence they adduced for this theory. None of the numerous memoirs written by the survivors from the bunker and none of the Nazi hierarchy in interrogation ever gave the least hint that there might have been any liaisons of the type described by Heβ in his interview with Holmes, or suggested that they may have been the reason for Heβ’s flight.
There are two principal sources of information on the last days and hours of Hitler. The first is Hugh Trevor-Roper’s book, referred to above. Trevor-Roper travelled to Berlin in the autumn of 1945 at the request of Sir Dick White of the British Secret Service and interviewed those survivors of the bunker who were in the hands of the Western Allies. His book appeared in early 1947 after the conclusion of the Nuremburg trials. It does not mention any chain of relationships between Eva Braun and other members of Hitler’s circle and is more concerned in presenting a detailed picture of the figures in Hitler’s inner circle – or court, as Trevor-Roper aptly called it – than in probing the minutiae of his death. Yet where the death scenes are described, it is clear that Günsche is at the centre of the action.
The second major source is The Hitler Book. Otto Günsche was captured by the Soviets on 2 May 1945, transported to Moscow and interrogated relentlessly by the NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB), as they sought to establish the truth behind whether Hitler had died and how. Hitler’s valet, Heinz Linge, was also taken to Moscow and interrogated. Both men were subjected to humiliating torture to force them to speak. Although The Hitler Book is very different in tone from Trevor-Roper’s, its objectives are the same. A file, based on the interrogations, was written for the personal attention of Stalin by Fyodor Parparov and Igor Saleye. This was typed into a 429-page book and given to Stalin in its final form on 29 December 1949.
Western historians had access to the old Soviet archives from 1991, but the file given to Stalin by Parparov and Saleye had been given the designation “File 462A” with no description of its contents, and was ignored by historians. Researchers from the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich “discovered” the report that became The Hitler Book in 2005. The volume was first translated and widely published in German, then immediately thereafter in English.
Until 2015, no one was aware that Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson had carried out their investigation of Rudolf Heβ in the last days of World War II, or what Heβ had said. When I read Watson’s sensational recollections of his interview with Heβ, I sought to validate them in The Hitler Book.
The Hitler Book makes none of the suggestions made by Heβ to Holmes and Watson, but read by someone informed with the insight provided by Dr Watson’s writing, it is striking how many of the incomprehensible things in Hitler’s life and death start to make sense.
Rӧhm was executed, allegedly for his homosexuality, but this preference was not particularly unusual amongst the Storm-troopers. Watson’s work is a compelling reason for thinking that the reason for the e
xecution should be re-examined.
Then there is Hitler’s reaction to the desertion of Eva Braun’s brother-in-law, Hermann Fegelein, who was a leading figure in Hitler’s inner circle. He sought to flee Berlin in the last week of the Battle of Berlin. The Hitler Book relates how Hitler was content for Fegelein to be punished by being sent to a penal battalion, but that Günsche agitated for his execution, which was then carried out. Could it be that Günsche feared that Fegelein had uncovered his secret and wanted to make sure that Fegelein was properly silenced?
Even more tellingly, the very last few scenes in Hitler’s life are told exclusively from the point of view of Günsche, who is described as standing guard outside Hitler’s study while Hitler shoots himself. This clearly leaves the possibility open that Günsche himself fired the fatal shot in an argument between lovers of the same woman and that Günsche then arranged for the complete destruction of Hitler’s body to ensure that the true cause of death could never be found out.
There is no doubt in my mind that the revelations made by Heβ to Watson have compelling evidence to substantiate them. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to speak to any of the participants in the sombre drama of the bunker to investigate them further. The last character of those mentioned above was Otto Günsche himself, who died in 2006, and so the trail has run cold. A historian’s responsibility is to tell us what happened rather than why it happened. Nevertheless, Dr Watson’s memoirs may just have helped us explain the motivations behind some well-known events, which until now have been shrouded in mystery.
A Scandal in Nova Alba
I came down to breakfast to find Holmes seated in his normal place. He did not look up from a document that had come in that morning’s post. After several minutes of intense concentration, he wordlessly passed it over to me, and I took it to the window to look at it in the sunlight shining into our sitting-room. It was an undated, unsigned note written in thick black ink and the address at the top was of a hotel in Rome.
“There will call upon you tonight at a quarter to eight o’clock, a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a matter of the highest importance. Your recent services to two of the royal houses of Europe and other services rendered outwith the more elevated levels of society, have shown that you are one who may safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which can hardly be exaggerated. Pray be in your quarters at the stated hour.”
“What do you make of this letter?” Holmes asked.
“Its sender must be from the highest circles of society,” I remarked thoughtfully, as I attempted to put Holmes’s deductive methods into practice, “as the notepaper is of the highest quality, and the name of the hotel in Rome, Hotel di Savoia, suggests a lofty establishment”.
“Good, Watson, very sound,” said Holmes. “Anything else?”
I picked up the envelope and was surprised to see the postmark was a London one from the previous day. I pointed this out to Holmes, who countered “But what does this tell us?”
“Only, I suppose, that for whatever reason, the writer wrote the note from an Italian hotel before coming to London and sending it to us from here.”
“Still the same old Watson! Is it possible you fail to grasp the importance of what you have said? You observe without inferring. You state that it is written by someone from the highest circles of society, but in fact his knowledge of my assistance to two royal families suggests that the writer is himself a senior member of a royal house. Otherwise, it is unlikely he would be aware of this fact. We may therefore go further than merely to say that the writer is from the very highest circles of society. We can additionally note that the subject matter on which he wishes to consult with us is of such importance that he has not entrusted a secretary with drafting his correspondence. I deduce therefore that the member of the royal house has himself written this note in a hotel room using hotel stationery. The writer was clearly unsure of whether to send it at all, and in the end wrote it in Italy, but sent it off only once he had arrived in London. His precision over the time of our meeting combined with his hesitation in sending the note show a high level of vacillation. The English itself is of interest. It is clearly written by someone who is either a native-speaker or who speaks English at a level close to that of a native-speaker. Yet I am surprised by the use of the word ‘outwith’, which is used largely as a Scottish legal term meaning ‘excluding’. I wonder what member of a royal family is acquainted with Scottish legal terms?”
“So what are you going to do until a quarter to eight this evening?” I asked.
“I have a number of other commissions to perform,” said Holmes breezily. “And in any case, I can do nothing useful on this case until our client arrives.”
I had a number of commissions of my own to carry out and it was just before a quarter to eight on a miry evening that I arrived back at Baker Street. Precisely at the appointed time, there was a knock on our door and our client entered. He was a short, wiry man, smartly but unobtrusively dressed.
“Is one of you gentlemen Mr Sherlock Holmes?” he asked in a voice with a Celtic lilt.
“I am,” said Holmes. “And this is my colleague, Dr Watson. And whom do I have the honour of addressing?”
“I am the king of Nova Alba.”
“Surely, I have seen you before, Your Majesty?”
“I think not,” replied our visitor. “This is the first time I have stayed in London, though I did come past your door this morning when I was getting the perfect spy of the time required to get here from my hotel.”
“Ah, that must be it,” said Holmes blandly, although I could see he had discomfited our visitor. “And you say you are the king of Nova Alba?”
Nova Alba! I remembered the Anglophone but Anglophobe fastness cast adrift in the north Atlantic and seemingly in a permanent state of strife. As I recalled, its present ruler and hence the man before us, had become king after a power struggle involving his predecessor, the sons of his predecessor, assorted other pretenders to the throne, and a Norwegian invader in which all but the king had either been killed or gone into exile.
“Nova Alba,” said our client smoothly, “is a country which has been much misunderstood. While in the past it was a kakocracy of unrivalled savagery, my reign has seen the rule of law hold sway in a way it has never done before. Indeed, in many senses, it is now more liberal and at peace with itself than England is. We no longer have a censor, we guarantee free speech, and indeed some of the wilder things in life that are banned here are permitted in Nova Alba, although we make sure that those who need protecting from such things remain protected. I have been on the throne for ten difficult years, but the turbulence in my land has abated to the extent that I finally felt able to make a visit to Rome to meet the Holy Father, as I and most of my countrymen are of the Roman Catholic faith. I wanted to see him on a number of matters relating to my ascent to the throne that required clearing up. He recommended that I seek advice from you.”
“Perhaps then, Your Majesty, you would like to set out the circumstances relating to your ascent to the throne on which you require clarification,” said Holmes stiffly.
“My predecessor as king, as you may recall, was King Duncan,” continued the king. “I was his Chief of Military Staff. I had just repelled an invasion from Norway and the king came to my palace to celebrate our victory. While he was a guest under my roof, he suffered a violent end. We found him in his bed stabbed in the side. Within a week, Duncan’s sons, who as adult sons were the obvious successors to the throne, had fled. They were rumoured to be trying to muster a rebel army, but nothing more was ever heard of them. Shortly afterwards, Banquo, a fellow nobleman, and his son, also went into exile. As there was no one else of sufficient authority to ascend the throne, I was invested as the new king.”
The king paused and I could see my friend becoming increasingly curious.
“So what did you wish to speak to me about?” Holmes enquired at length.
“Although I have been king f
or ten years, I have not as yet been crowned, and I visited the Pope in an effort to persuade him to come to Nova Alba to perform my coronation. He declined to do so as long as the finger of suspicion over King Duncan’s death was levelled at me. I asked him how I might clear my name to his satisfaction, and he suggested I convene a court of Alban noblemen to try my case. If they find me innocent, he is willing to make a state visit to Nova Alba and crown me king.”
There was another long pause before Holmes posed another question: “And … did you kill King Duncan?”
“No, sir, I did not.”
“And was your statement to this effect to His Holiness not sufficient to assuage his doubts?”
“I am not so much of a fool as to deny that when a man is murdered in his host’s house and, as a result, the host acquires his titles, lands and fortune, suspicion against the host is a very natural reaction!” The king flushed as he spoke and I could see his reputation for a hot temper was well-founded. “I was, in fact, surprised that the Pope agreed to meet me at all, given the cloud that has hung over my name ever since the death of Duncan, and I am fully seized with a desire to satisfy him of my innocence. I would like you to investigate the killing of Duncan and to present your findings to the court.”
“And does anyone else know of this plan?”
“No, sir. I have agreed the plan to engage you to investigate this case with the Pope, who suggested your name himself. Furthermore, I have told my nobles of my desire to establish my innocence, but have not intimated to them how I intend to do this. Indeed, before I went to Rome I had not formed a plan on this matter at all. I posted the letter asking to see you yesterday, after my arrival in London off the boat-train.”
Holmes left another long pause before saying: “Tell me about the murder of King Duncan.”
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