Not a member of the Wehrmacht or SS, Martin Bormann made his career in the Nazi Party hierarchy. The son of a comfortable middle-class family, Bormann's early years were unremarkable. Then came a year's imprisonment for beating to death a fellow German suspected of collaboration with the Rhineland's French and Belgian occupiers. The Nazi movement seemed a welcome haven for the young embittered ex-convict. At Hitler's side during the Night of the Long Knives, Bormann's power and influence grew over the course of the 1930s.

Bormann was Rudolph Hess' deputy and remained in his shadow for some time, knowing that Hess had little interest in day-to-day organizational detail, and that here was an opportunity to slowly amass power. Bormann effectively took Hess' place after his flight to Britain and was a key advisor to Adolph Hitler until the end of the war. The highest-ranking Nazi Party official unaccounted-for at war's end, the final fate of Martin Bormann became shrouded in mystery and mythology.

Where has Martin Bormann been since 1945? Living comfortably in Britain or Russia, while being milked for intelligence information? Aiding Israel's enemies in the Middle East? Hiding out in South America or elsewhere in the post-war Nazi underground? Or is the truth more prosaic, and has Bormann been lying in a grave in Berlin all these years?