Moment in time -1931

 MUNICH, GERMANY  - 19th September 1931

HE LOOKED AT her standing in the center of the room wearing just her bra and panties and wondered how he could placate this twenty-three-year-old virago. 

She was certainly attractive enough with her dark brown hair and pleasant face, and a firm body well suited for his purposes. This once gentle, warm, affectionate girl, however, had slowly but surely turned into a shrew. Her vivacious and self-possessed nature, which had first attracted him, was now just a memory. Perhaps that was the reason another woman had recently caught his fancy. Whatever, his niece was becoming more and more of a problem. Martin was right! He would have to end this relationship once and for all.  For now, though, he needed to pacify her if he were to get some peace. 

She, for her part, was determined to make her position plain. Her eyes were defiant as they played over the naked man standing a few feet away. She would have been the first to admit that her uncle was not an imposing figure. He was of average height and, aside from the bluest of eyes and a short, rather comical moustache, he would never stand out in a crowd. In the sexual department, he was nothing to shout about either. However, she, Geli Raubal, was quite besotted with him. For sheer magnetism, no one, she felt, could match him. That’s why she had become his devoted plaything, until now, that is!  But that would end if he did not listen to her.

She tried again, the anger evident as she screamed at him,  “How come you can be seen out with her and not with me?”

“Liebling” he murmured demurely. “Come over here! Let us talk about this together.”

But she was quite beside herself with anger and refused to concede. “Why should I!” she stormed. “You only want me for one thing!” She paused only briefly wondering whether she dare say it but her anger overrode her prudence. “What if I were to tell my mother what you’ve been doing to me? What then?”

“Liebling, Liebling!” he repeated trying to soothe her whilst his own uneasiness bubbled to the surface. What if his sister did find out what he had been up to with her daughter?  She could make it difficult for him in many ways at this very important period of his life. The German people were debauched by nature, but they demanded of their political leaders, at the very least, a facade of respectability.  It could be the end of his political aspirations if he were involved in a scandal at this particular time. He decided that he would have to mollify her or there could be serious repercussions.

“Look, you know that if I could be seen in public with you, I would, but you are my niece after all and people talk!”

“Oh, What would they say exactly? There he goes! Did you know he’s fucking his niece?” she exclaimed.

The man’s anger was now barely under control as he turned around and took his clothes from the chair where they had been neatly placed an hour before. She was wasting his time. He was very fond of her in his own way, but she was becoming a nuisance and a dangerous nuisance at that. It had been a foolish affair, to begin with. Now it must end.

With his back turned to her, she played her trump card. “Anyway, you’ll have to marry me now! I’ve had your baby!”

For a moment her words failed to register.  When they did, he choked “What!” dropping his clothes with the shock.

“I’ve had your baby!” she repeated.

“Don’t be so foolish!” he replied smiling now at her little joke as he bent down and picked up his clothes.

“So you don’t believe me!” she retorted. “Where do you think I’ve been these last few months?”

He looked concerned as he straightened up “Where?”

“Having your baby, of course!”

All his plans and all his dreams seemed to be dissolving into nothing as her words whirled around in his brain. How could this be? How would this look? An incestuous relationship between him and his niece. This would have to be concealed.  She must understand that, he concluded.  But she wasn’t in any mood to listen.

“If you don’t marry me now, I’ll expose you for what you are!”

“Are you trying to blackmail me?” he asked tensely.

“Call it what you will! I want what is due to me!”

Despite his past feelings for her, she had to be silenced now. After all, it was he that was important, not her. His jacket was still stretched over the back of the chair and he quickly reached into the inside pocket where the small pistol lay. Before she had time to comprehend what was happening, he had raised it and fired from eight feet away straight into her chest. A surprised look came over her face as the realization sank into her brain that her uncle had shot her. But he loved her, didn’t he? Then the ground seemed to reach up and her face bounced off the linoleum floor. She felt nothing however because she was already dead. 

There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs outside the apartment and Emil Maurice, his chauffeur burst in.

“What happened?” Emil cried out. “Are you hurt?”

The sight of his employer standing there stark naked with a smoking gun in his hand did not seem to faze Emil at all. His gaze focused at once on the girl lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

“She shot herself!” the man exhorted. “She shot herself!”

Who was he to say differently, Emil decided as he gazed at her semi-clad body. Anyway, one way or the other, no one in Germany would dare accuse his employer of shooting the girl. Emil suggested, rather boldly, he thought later, “You should dress, Sir! The police will be here shortly!”

“The police! Have you called the police?”

“No, sir, but someone is bound to have heard the shot and the police should be called!” Maurice hesitated, “Shouldn’t they?” he asked somewhat less certain of himself now.

“Yes, but I need to make a phone call first." With that, the man went across to a side desk where a telephone lay. He rang someone and spoke for a minute or so, then hung up.

“That’s settled then! Don’t worry about the police! The matter is being taken care of!”

“Right! Sir!” Emil said. “But shouldn’t we remove her from your flat, sir?”

“No!” The other man replied impatiently, “Everything is in hand! I want you to go back to the office now!”

“What about you, sir?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll walk back!”

“Walk back, sir?” Emil repeated shocked at the suggestion and almost protested but thought better of it. “Very good sir!” he acknowledged and left.

The man then hurriedly dressed and followed. Making his way back to his office on foot, he thought over the events that had transpired only minutes before. It was odd but he felt strangely elated by her death. By killing her, he had pried loose the hold she had over him. The spell she had cast was no more and neither was she. Somehow, the very thought that he had snuffed out her life as easily as stamping on a bug excited him.  It recalled to his mind his past experiences in the Great War when his bullets had found their mark on the enemy. That sense of power that killing bestows stimulated his warped mind and he revelled in it. Did murderers feel this same exaltation when they took a life? Is that what made them kill, he wondered.

Then he began to think about what she had said. A child but was that possible?  Martin Bormann would be the man he would entrust to establish this. Martin could be relied on completely as he had been in the past. If a child did exist, then, and only then, would its fate be decided. As for his recently deceased niece, he would, of course, feign remorse over her death. After all, she was family and it was expected of him.

Caught up in his thoughts, he made his way through side alleys and along thoroughfares that were filling with people on their way to work. It was a sunny morning and people were about their business. Two young men however gave the man a second glance as he passed them. 

“That’s Adolf Hitler, I tell you!” the dark-haired man said.

His fair-haired companion retorted, “Sure it is! And what would Hitler be doing out walking, and on his own at that? Besides, Hitler’s bigger than that, isn’t he?”

 “I saw him speak at a rally last year. He did look a tall man!” the other responded.

“You see! There you go! Besides, that man was grinning like a fool. I can’t see Hitler walking around at this time in the morning behaving in that way.”

Both men laughed and the matter was quickly forgotten as Klaus started to jog ahead. Turning he called back, 

“Com’on, Hans! I’ll race you to the bus stop.”