Martin Bormann

Martin Bormann
Born	1900-06-17 Wegeleben, Prussia, Germany
Died	1945-05-02 (Age 44) "1945-05-02" Berlin, Germany
Nationality	German
Children	• Adolf Martin Bormann • Ilse Bormann • Irmgard Bormann • Rudolf Gerhard Bormann • Heinrich Hugo Bormann • Eva Ute Bormann • Gerda Bormann • Fritz Hartmut Bormann • Volker Bormann
Spouse	Gerda Buch
Interest of	Tony Gosling, Paul Manning, Laurence de Mello
Party	National Socialist German Workers' Party
A prominent official in Hitler's government with control over assets plundered by the Nazis. The official story says he died in Berlin in 1945, although this is disputed.  Chief of the Parteikanzlei In office 12 May 1941 - 2 May 1945  Personal Secretary to the Führer In office 12 April 1943 - 30 April 1945  Personal Secretary to the Deputy Führer In office July 1933 - 12 May 1941  Reichsleiter In office October 1933 - 2 May 1945  Party Minister of the National Socialist German Workers' Party In office 30 April 1945 - 2 May 1945  Chief of the Party Chancellery In office 12 May 1941 - 2 May 1945  Secretary to the Führer In office 12 April 1943 - 30 April 1945  Secretary to the Deputy Führer In office July 1933 - 12 May 1941  Party Minister In office 30 April 1945 - 2 May 1945

Martin Bormann was a Nazi party official. He was in charge of the finances of the Nazi party. Opinions differ on whether he died in Berlin at the end of the war or whether he was escaped with the help of the UK deep state and fled to South America.

Official narrative

The official narrative has it that Martin Bormann died whilst trying to escape the encirclement of Berlin by the Red Army on 30 April 1945. It rests largely on the testimony of Arthur Axeman, leader of the Hitler Youth and one of his companions on the break out attempt. He later claimed that he found Bormann's body after they went in separate directions and he was forced to double-back by a Red Army patrol. Soviet Lt. General Konstantin Telegin recalls his men bringing him Bormann's diary. There were persistent reports of sightings from Munich to various South American locations over subsequent decades. In 1998 genetic tests on a skull by the German authorities apparently confirmed it was that of Martin Bormann.

Nuremberg trial in absentia

That the official narrative that Martin Bormann died in Berlin at the end of the war took some time to become established can be gauged from the fact that in October 1946 the Nuremberg trials sentenced Bormann to death in absentia.

Official opposition narrative

Reinhard Gehlen

In his memoirs, Nazi and later BND chief Reinhard Gehlen claimed Borman was a Soviet spy, without elaborating any further, and that Borman had survived the war and was resettled in the Soviet Union. This theory is also put forth in Louis C. Kilzers book Hitler's Traitor: Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich.

John Ainsworth Davis' suggestion that Bormann survived

In 1997 former wartime COPP commando John Ainsworth-Davis, under the pen-name Christopher Creighton, published Op JB, his account of a supposed allied raid into Berlin to snatch Bormann. The alleged top secret MI6 operation was carried out, he says, with the knowledge and approval of only King George VI, Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Lord Louis Mountbatten and Desmond Morton. The book contains facsimiles of typed letters from Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming supporting Ainsworth-Davis' story. John says a 'double' of Bormann was taken with them on the raid who'd had dental surgery so that he would match the real Bormann. In an interview with Buenos Aires based British journalist Laurence De Mello Ainsworth-Davis says, "We took Bormann out, and the other chap was blown to pieces."

Martin Bormann - Nazi in Exile

Paul Manning, a war reporter in WW2, researched the Bor­mann Orga­ni­za­tion in South America in detail and confirmed early on, that Martin Bormann is indeed still alive. He died before he could publish a second book on the topic. His surviving son was interviewed in 1998 by Dave Emory for Spitfirelist.

Sightings

Since 1945, there were persistent sightings of Bormann.

The World at War

The British documentary series The World at War, produced by Thames Television and released in 1973, tells (to some extent and detail) the history of the war. The episode "Inside the Reich: Germany (1940–1944)" features interviews with Albert Speer, Richard Schulze-Kossens and others. Albert Speer, after he took over all offices on the order of Hitler from Fritz Todt after his demise:

“[...] what for others would have been discussions of weeks and weeks, for him was a decision of just a fraction of a minute. Of course, there was a change too, one can never say that a man is always the same person and Hitler changed a lot from 42 to 43. In 43 he was more and more convinced that doesn't need no more the advice of anybody and he made the decisions by himself without listening.”
Albert Speer

The documentary details then, that when Hitler started to stay at the Wolf's Lair (which became his headquarter in East Prussia) more permanently, his better advisors lost touch.

Richard Schulze-Kossens (an adjutant to Hitler at the time) in a shortcut from an interview that follows says that nearly all ministers remained stationed in Berlin, and some of them had contact officers in Hitlers headquarter. Ribbentrop, Himmler and sometimes Göring were not far away with their own headquarter.

“Speer was very often in the headquarters because his ministry was very important for the war. Only Bormann was always in the headquarters, where there was the only direct contact to Hitler.”
Richard Schulze-Kossens

Directly thereafter follows an interview sequence with Speer again, in which he says:

“Bormann as the secretary was the most powerful man, more powerful, I think, than Hitler. Because when the power was divided all those men who were in power had to go via him to Hitler. Except me, I had the direct access to Hitler.”
Albert Speer

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
File:Martin Bormann - Nazi In Exile.pdf	book	1981	Paul Manning	A deep history of transnational corporate ownership networks originating from the fascist junction of state and economic power in Germany before and during WWII

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