Martin Bormann(1900-1945)
One of the Nazi Party's inner circle, Martin Bormann was a power-hungry
racist, whose lust for power was matched only by his hatred of Jews and
Slavs. The #2 man in Nazi Germany, he was always by Adolf Hitler's side, and
many historians have theorized that it was he who was the de facto
power in Nazi Germany from 1941-1945, as he decided who would see
Hitler and what would and could be said to him. When Hitler and the
remnants of his regime were being surrounded by Russian forces in
Berlin at the very end, accounts differ as to Bormann's actual fate.
Some say he tried to break through Soviet lines and get out of the city
in a tank, but that it was hit and destroyed. Others say he took
cyanide and died in the bunker with his Fuhrer. There is, however, the
possibility that he actually did escape, made his way to Italy and
eventually found his way to South America (there were many stories over
the years that he was alive and living in Argentina, which for a long
time after World War II was a well-known safe haven for escaped Nazi
war criminals). Although the West German government declared that his
remains had been found, this was perhaps to try to stop the Nazi
hunters from looking for him.
