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Solving the ultimate caper
BookPage recently talked to Louis Kilzer, an investigative reporter with the Rocky Mountain News and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, about his search for the true identity of the spy in Hitler's inner circle.
BookPage: The obvious first question about Hitler's Traitor is whether you worked from back to front. That is, did you begin with a conviction that Martin Bormann was a traitor to Hitler or did you discover that along the way?
Louis Kilzer: I had suspicions before I started the book, but I didn't know how strong of a case it would end up being. It turned out to be a pretty strong case.
BP: How and when did you first get interested in this project?
LK: I did a book in 1994 [Churchill's Deception] about the Rudolf Hess mission that entailed research that occurred from 1991 onward. I went to the Soviet Union in May 1991, just three months before the Soviet Empire ended, to access KGB records. Then I did extensive research at the U.S. National Archives and developed a suspicion at that point that Bormann may have been involved in this ultimate caper.
BP: Did it surprise you that women played such an important role in this story?
LK: That was fascinating. The people who first wrote about the Swiss spy ring were all men and they, of course, were credited by male historians with having run the ring. But when you look into the original OSS and CIA records, it becomes obvious that the key roles were played by women.
BP: How did your opinion of Bormann change while writing the book?
LK: Bormann is a mystery figure. My view of him hardened. I did not know the extent to which he contributed to the Holocaust until I researched this book. He was, in fact, one of the prime movers of the Holocaust. Put that together with what he was doing in the spy ring, and it is very difficult to understand. I don't fully understand it to this day.
BP: If this information about Bormann had been discovered in the immediate aftermath of the war, what effect do you think it would have had?
LK: I believe the Soviets would have been rather embarrassed. The Soviet Union had no interest...in letting that secret out because, for the Soviets, it was the Red Army that won the war and not a spy ring. That would take away from the prestige of the Red Army.
Read A Review Of "Hitler's Traitor"
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