The Doomsday Testament(44)

‘Unfortunately, the hall is closed for special cleaning, but if you move to the front you will be able to see everything and I will explain it for you.’

Jamie felt Sarah stiffen beside him. He turned on Magda and gave her his hundred-watt smile.

‘But we’ve come all the way from England to see this.’ He sighed. ‘The Hall of the Generals was always going to be the highlight of our trip. Surely you could let us in for a few minutes?’

‘Please?’ Sarah added. For a moment he thought that membership of the sisterhood would achieve what charm was patently incapable of doing. Magda retrieved her keys from her jacket and fiddled nervously with one that was large and silver. He saw the conflicting arguments race across her face. She was a nice girl who enjoyed helping people. Truly, she wanted to help them. But she was also a good German girl, and despite all her unease about the war and what had happened here, a good German girl still obeyed orders. If her manager said this gate stayed closed until Thursday, then that’s what would happen. She shook her head and returned her keys to her pocket.

‘I’m sorry, I cannot.’ Her face mirrored the genuine regret in her voice. ‘But please, ask me anything you wish.’

They looked through the bars at the Black Sun twenty feet away in the centre of the marble floor and as available for close inspection as if it had been on the moon. Jamie was surprised when Sarah smiled and enquired what the room had been used for.

Magda smiled back, relieved the moment of confrontation was past.

‘The Obergruppenführersaal and the crypt below are the only two rooms in the north tower known to have been completed to Himmler’s satisfaction. This was to be the meeting hall of the twelve generals, the Obergruppenführer, who commanded the Allgemeine-SS.’ She saw Jamie’s puzzlement. ‘What one might call the civil SS, as opposed to the Waffen-SS, who were the military arm. You will count twelve alcoves and twelve pillars, perhaps the alcoves would have contained statues of these men, yes? Twelve generals, as there were twelve Knights of the Round Table. If you half close your eyes you will be able to imagine a round table in the centre of the room and beneath it the Black Sun, the centre of Himmler’s universe.’

‘Are you saying that Himmler really thought he was King Arthur?’ Jamie laughed.

Magda smiled again. ‘Perhaps that is more difficult to imagine, he was such a . . . a kümmerling.’ The word meant runt of the litter, but more besides. ‘But his interest in the occult was very real. It extended even to the search for a forgotten race of superhumans who were the forerunners of the Aryan people.’

Something puzzled Sarah. ‘What was it that made the Black Sun so important? If it was the centrepiece of Himmler’s world it must have been of enormous significance?’

Magda frowned. ‘It is one of the enigmas of Wewelsburg,’ she admitted. ‘No one knows for certain. This was to be the room of the great mysteries. The inner sanctum, like the cella of a Roman temple. To understand the significance of the Black Sun, you had to be one of the twelve men versed in the mysteries. It is certainly a form of sun wheel, perhaps of pagan origin. As the planets of the solar system revolve around the central figure of the sun, so Germany, and perhaps the rest of the world, must revolve around Himmler and his SS. At one time a gold disc formed the centre of the Black Sun. The sun is the giver of life, so the Black Sun could give life or take it away. But that is only my own theory.’

‘Perhaps if we could get a closer look we could come up with an alternative?’ Sarah suggested.

Magda gave her a tight smile. ‘One of the reasons this door is here is that, for certain people . . . certain organizations . . . the Black Sun is still important.’

‘Nazis?’

‘I believe they are now called neo-Nazis. Certainly groups who still follow the Nazi ideology, perhaps worship the memory of Adolf Hitler, and believe in the same mysticism in which Heinrich Himmler believed. There have been several instances in the past of these groups holding ceremonies here.

‘But not now.’ She shook the bars of the gate. ‘It would take someone very strong and very determined to break through here. And first they would have to get into the castle.’

Jamie smiled, but his heart was somewhere near his boots. If a bunch of neo-Nazi fanatics couldn’t get inside the north tower to see the Black Sun, how the hell was he going to manage it? Magda escorted them back to the gate. They thanked her and declined her suggestion of lunch at the museum’s café. Jamie stood back as Sarah apologized for her earlier behaviour. She whispered something in Magda’s ear and the German girl wrapped her arms round her in a tight hug. When they parted, her cheeks were damp with tears.