The nightmare was real, it had carried on during his waking moments too, until at last he confronted his fears and returned to the scene. He sat in the shadow of the pines that had miraculously survived where so many people had perished, and looked across a dark jumble of still torn-up earth over to where the cold blue water of the Baltic flowed. It had all changed. All the once familiar landmarks obliterated. Here and there a tangle of weeds stood witness to a period when expectations were high, when they could be proud of their achievements in not of the ends they put to.

He recalled his parents, proud father and mother praising him for his prowess in the classroom and on the sports field. Of little Ilse clinging to his hand as he led her carefully across the lawn towards the garden swing. Rolf, the big German Shepherd who was devoted to Ilse and followed her everywhere on the Clamstein holiday estate.

He recalled the long talks with his father and the gradual explanation that all was not as nice and safe as it seemed. The revelation that he, Hans von Clamstein und Masselin, had a special duty for his son that might have to be carried out regardless of life or limb.

Time and time again he’d taken Erich to the special hidden safe and shown him how to open it till Erich could do it blindfolded. Time and time again he had shown Erich the special files which in an emergency would have to be transferred to that safe, and if Hans was unable to do it, he, Erich, would have to be entrusted with the duty. It was not to be spoken of. It was a secret so powerful if it fell into the wrong hands it could even put an end to hope that the thousand year Reich would collapse.

But nothing happened to disturb the peaceful well-regulated household until that night of August 17th 1943. Erich knew nothing of the secret trials being held at the other end of the island. Nobody was rash enough to trust a very young boy with secrets of that nature and magnitude, and even his father, a research chemist, had very little idea what was being developed there. No, Hans had a separate agenda, and being a man who utterly despised the new order, had secrets of his own. But as he was leaving the research complex he had a dire premonition, and without considering his own safety, phoned his home and spoke to Erich.