The Girl in the Diary

'My name is Geraint Talfan Davies.

'I've been a journalist for most of my life,

'chasing and telling other people's stories.

'But there's one story I never got the chance to tell.

'A mystery that's bothered me for the past 15 years.

'My uncle, Idris Morgan, died in 2000.

'All that remains of him now -

'a few boxes of old photographs and documents...

'and a copy of a diary, given to me before he died.

'Meticulously typed up and bound, it recounts a momentous year

'in a young man's life.

'A year that would bring Idris face-to-face

'with Adolf Hitler's right-hand man

'and confront him with tragedy...

'The suspicious death of a dear friend.

'What drove my Uncle Idris, then in his 80s,

'to return to an old diary, to pick through its handwritten pages,

'to type it up afresh and bind it so meticulously?

'Was it simply an old man's nostalgia,

'or was it unfinished business?

'80 years on, I've come back to Berlin to try and find out.

'In September 1933,

'Barclays employee Idris Morgan arrived in Berlin

'to complete a 12-month exchange with the Dresdner Bank.

'He was 27 years old and single.

'The city he arrived in was a far cry from the village of Penmark

'in the Vale of Glamorgan, and the farm he'd grown up on as a child.

'From the narrow streets of Barry to the wide avenues of Berlin,

'the young Idris Morgan

'may only have travelled a few hundred miles...

'..but he'd arrived in another world.

'And it's here in Central Berlin, the shy and studious young Idris,

'arrived at Dresdner Bank's Depka 54,

'on the corner of the Kurfurstendamm and Olivaer Platz.

'He would spend much of the next 12 months working at the branch.

'An ordinary job perhaps, but these were no ordinary times.'

IDRIS: "During the day, the Depka was closed from 12:45 until 2pm,

"while Hitler made his speech from the Siemens factory."

MEN CHEER

"Wireless was installed in the bank to broadcast the speech."

"There was one minute's silence throughout Germany at one o'clock

"and all work stopped for one hour in order that

"everyone might hear the speech."

CHEERING

80 years on,

I've come to the bank's headquarters in Central Berlin

to see if any record remains of my uncle's time in the city.

Professor Johannes Bahr, an authority on the bank's history,

says he has something to show me.

That is incredible, isn't it?

It really is, after 80 years...

Hard to credit that this has actually survived.

So complete.

And a photograph.

How utterly, utterly amazing.

-And...a Lebenslauf...

-That's a CV.

That's a CV?

There's another interesting list here.

What is this word at the bottom - "Arier"?

Aryan. It means Aryan.

So every member of staff would have had to answer that question,

although I notice here that Idris... has not answered it.

Well...

Yes, he may have got away with it, others didn't.

'Anti-Semitic messages were increasingly explicit at this time.

'Blatant propaganda, designed to instil suspicion

'and fear in the German people.

'Whether these messages had a direct influence on Idris's thinking,

'it's impossible to say,

'but like many Germans at that time,

'he took the path of least resistance,

'and in doing so,

'ended up accommodating the wishes of the Fuhrer.'

"I've given notice to Fraulein Heiser that I would leave

"because I want to live with a family, if possible,

"in order to talk more German.

"I was approached by a Jewish member of staff who suggested that

"I should go and live with a Jewish lady of his acquaintance,

"who has an apartment near the Tiergarten.

"I think such a move would be inadvisable in the present climate

"of opinion in Berlin, so I put him off."

It's easy to excuse Idris's nervous response.

After all, he was a young man in a foreign country.

But to know that my uncle, a member of my own family,

arrived at this decision does make me feel uncomfortable.

In the end, it was across a hallway from Dresdner colleague Fritz Sommer,

his wife Anny,

and their 21-year-old daughter, Gerda, that Idris opted to live.

Fun-loving Gerda was Idris's guide to the city,

introducing him to her friends, showing him the sights.

These were heady days.

And then, to top it all, a proper date for this very proper Welshman.

"November 18:

"Took Fraulein Sommer to the annual dance

"of the Dresdner Bank Sportvereine at the Philharmonic Hall.

"Afterwards, she persuaded me to go on to Cafe Rusch

"on the Kurfurstendamm, where we met Herr Kohli

"and a few of his friends.

"I eventually reached home at 4:30."

As the year drew to a close,

Idris's friendship with the Sommers grew.

It's clear from the diary that Gerda,

her grandmother and parents

had all taken a shine to their foreign visitor.

"At midday, Gerda Sommer called at the bank

"and I arranged to meet her in the evening.

"We met for coffee at Cafe Kranzler

"and then went to buy chocolates and some stockings.

"Afterwards, I bought an extra suitcase for myself,

"some cognac and cigarettes.

"After dinner, I visited the Sommers

"to present my offerings.

"I also took the book of Welsh songs I had from my sister, Mary,

"and we had some music."

This was a happy time for Idris.

Perhaps the Sommers represented the family unit he'd never had.

His elder sister, Alice, died when he was four.

Two years later, his mother died,

giving birth to his baby sister, my mother, Mary.

What remained of his childhood was spent trailing after his father,

from one failed business to the next.

A lost childhood.

Perhaps it was here in Berlin with the Sommers

that Idris finally felt at home.

But Christmas 1933 would be the last they would spend together

before tragedy struck and life for the Sommers,

and perhaps Idris too,

was changed for ever.

January 1934 brought with it an opportunity for Idris to spend

a few days at Dresdner's prestigious headquarters

at the Behrenstrasse.

Today, the building is a five-star hotel,

but 80 years ago, it was the jewel in the Dresdner crown.

Despite heavy bombing during the Second World War,

parts of the original structure still remain.

Most impressive of all at the heart of the building,

the great banking hall,

where Idris and his colleagues would often gather.

-Yeah, this is the historical part.

-Was this...

Was this a balcony or were these arches filled in before?

It was open and you can imagine a director of the bank,

-walking around...

-The big man looking at...

-..controlling the business.

-Looking at the money coming in.

-Exactly, what's going on.

Despite the grandeur, the Dresdner Bank had been in crisis,

following the crippling economic crash of the late '20s

and it had to be bailed out by the state.

But state support in Hitler's Germany came at a cost.

Three high-ranking members of the SS

were put on the board of the bank.

More than 500 Jewish members of staff were sacked.

And it wasn't only at the workplace that the Nazi propaganda machine

was having an effect.

"Went with the Sommers to the Bock Bier Fest at Cafe Burke.

"I thought it quite pleasant.

"However, Frau Sommer was a bit upset,

"and said she did not want to go there again,

"as she was convinced it was a nest of Jews and anti-Nazis.

"I was rather surprised at this, because I did not think

"the Sommers were strong supporters of the Hitler party."

The New Year brought other tensions too,

with Gerda's constant late-night partying

with best friend Hilda Witke taking its toll on Fritz and Anny.

"The Sommers confided in me about the difficulties they had had

"and were still having with Gerda."

"Herr Sommer got himself a bit worked up,

"and left again at 1:30am to look for Gerda and Hilda.

"He came back with them, in a nasty temper."

Gerda's lifestyle was one she couldn't afford.

She had no qualifications and no job,

and perhaps this explains the string of men in hers and Hilda's orbit.

Knowing Idris as I did, a very proper man,

I can't imagine he would have approved of Gerda's ways.

Nevertheless, against his wishes, he became an accomplice,

lending Gerda 50 reichsmarks

so that she and Hilda could get a train to Leipzig

without her parents knowing.

"I must be careful not to get mixed up

"in her complicated relations with her parents,

"and perhaps I ought not to have given her the money.

"But she can be very persuasive when she tries,

"and uses her good looks to her own advantage."

As spring turned to summer,

Idris' relationship with Fritz and Anny drew closer.

They took regular trips together to the island of Lindwerder,

where Dresdner Bank kept paddle boats for their staff.

These were happy times.

But in the photographs taken during these summer months,

Gerda is conspicuously absent.

Idris was concerned for his friend.

After visiting her at breakfast one morning, he writes in his diary:

"She looked a complete disillusion, no doubt after another late night.

"I cannot help thinking that if she goes on as she does now,

"then long before she reaches her 30s,

"she will have lost all her good looks."

Idris was right to be worried.

There was a new man in Gerda's life, a man more than twice her age.

Oberleutnant Wilhelm Bruckner, chief adjutant to Adolf Hitler.

What do we know about Bruckner?

Someone who can answer that question

is historian Heike Gortemaker,

an expert on Hitler's inner circle.

In 1923, Hitler and Bruckner were imprisoned together at Landsberg,

following the failed Munich Putsch, the first Nazi revolt.

A close bond was formed between them, which is why, in 1930,

Hitler appointed him chief adjutant, running his private office.

Bruckner was tall and blond, and in many ways,

he represented the Aryan ideal.

Having Bruckner around made Hitler feel safe.

The night that Gerda tells Idris

about her relationship with Bruckner,

there's no doubt she's very, very defensive about it,

and she stresses, "There is no free access to my bed,"

and Idris, well, Idris replies really sharply,

"I had never suggested there was free access to her bed,

"and had never sought it either."

Did Idris feel protective of Gerda, or was he jealous?

In any event, it was here on Friday, June 8,

that Idris arrived at work to hear the shattering news,

that his friend, Gerda Sommer,

had been found dead in the apartment of Wilhelm Bruckner.

Shaken, Idris raced across the city to Bruckner's apartment.

It was here that my uncle would come face to face

with Hitler's gatekeeper.

"Frau Sommer and Fritz Sommer were there,

"and Gerda's body lay sprawled, fully clothed, on the bed.

"She looked terrible.

"She had not washed off her make-up before lying down,

"and there were yellowish and pink streaks at the corners of her mouth.

"Bruckner came in while we were there, a big man, tall,

"over six foot, and broad,

"with student duelling scars on his face.

"I would put him at about 40. He said the body could be moved,

"as he and the undertakers had arranged everything,

"and there would be no inquest."

It seems from what Idris wrote

that Bruckner was in a hurry to deal with the situation.

Was this to protect his reputation, or to conceal foul play?

The official verdict was given as suicide, death by gas poisoning.

Perhaps this was right.

The seals from the gas taps had been ripped away.

But if the reason for her death was so transparent,

why wait 24 hours before telling her parents?

Why deny them an inquest?

The second problem was perhaps more pressing.

Tensions between Hitler and Ernst Rohm,

leader of the party's paramilitary wing,

the SA, were increasing.

And soon, they would come to a head.

This was not a good time to fall out of favour with the Fuhrer.

Idris' diary provides the only known account of Gerda's death

and the events leading up to it.

It reports that Bruckner was called away to the Reich's Chancellery

at 2am on June 7, leaving Gerda alone in his apartment

with his servant girl Erica and her mother.

According to the diary,

it was on Bruckner's return later that morning

that Gerda was found dead.

For the Sommers, still reeling from the death of their only child,

there was no time to dwell on how or why she had died,

or why Bruckner was in such a hurry.

They had a daughter to bury,

and the official verdict of suicide presented them with a problem.

In the Roman Catholic Church,

taking one's own life was considered a mortal sin,

a violation of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."

This must have been an added source of grief for Gerda's mother,

a Roman Catholic. The thought that her daughter

and only child would be denied a Christian burial.

ORGAN MUSIC

And so, on the Saturday morning, two days after Gerda's death,

her mother and grandmother came to Ludwigskirche

to speak with a priest, to plead for his consent.

80 years on, after the devastation of the Second World War,

does any record remain of Gerda's death,

and of the dilemma faced by the family and their priest?

Oh, it's nothing.

HE MUTTERS

Good God!

A child's drawing of a German tank.

How extraordinary.

Right...

HE MUTTERS

Here it is. Here it is.

Gerda Sommer, Wurttemberger Strasse 27 and 28,

date of death - 7th of June,

date of the funeral - 12th of June.

And what does it say about...

a cause of death?

"Unglucksfall.

"Unglucksfall" - accident.

Not suicide.

That's amazing.

Accident, not suicide.

Why the discrepancy?

Was this an act of compassion by Father Milz?

TRANSLATION:

For four days, Gerda's body lay in the crypt of the Stahnsdorf chapel,

a place almost unchanged in 80 years.

"Saturday, June 9th.

"We all went out to Stahnsdorf

"and chose a place for Gerda's burial and saw her again afterwards.

"She had been properly laid out and looked much better.

"White and peaceful."

This is the room where Fritz

and Anny Sommer came to see the body of their only child.

Parents facing up to their worst nightmare.

An experience Idris' own parents endured

with the death of their own daughter, Idris' sister Alice.

For Gerda's parents, it was different. They suspected murder.

And it is here to Stahnsdorf that they returned on Tuesday,

June 12, 1934 for the funeral of their beloved daughter.

It was a small affair, attended by only a handful of family

and friends, amongst them Gerda's best friend Hilda Witke

and her fiance, Gerda's aunt and grandmother Frau Scheffels.

As for Bruckner, Idris writes in his diary:

"Bruckner did not attend

"but sent an SS officer as his representative with a wreath."

Back in Berlin, the Sommers' attention returned to Bruckner.

According to the diary, 24 hours had passed between the discovery

of Gerda's body and the family or authorities being informed.

A whole day in which a body was left on a bed in Berlin's

intense heat wave of the time.

This troubling fact was not lost on Fritz and Anny.

"Fritz told me of their suspicions, that there

"had been foul play involved and of their wish to push matters

"to an investigation and a proper inquest.

"I felt it was really none of my business but at the same time,

"I tried to caution him to be careful, lest an investigation should

"give rise to insinuations about Gerda's way of life

"and her behaviour in recent weeks that might cause her parents

"pain and reveal what might best lie hidden."

But the Sommers refused to listen.

They wanted answers

and were convinced Bruckner knew more than he was letting on.

TRANSLATION:

And what of Bruckner's claim that he was called

away in the early hours?

June 1934 was a tense time.

Plans to kill Ernst Rohm and other SA leaders were being drawn up.

Perhaps this was why Bruckner returned to the office.

Or perhaps there was another, more personal reason.

The Sommers didn't know who to blame.

Could it have been the servant girl,

jealous of Bruckner's affections for Gerda?

Or Dr Wittman, Bruckner's neighbour,

who had access to the flat via an adjoining door?

Or was it Bruckner himself, ridding himself of an embarrassment?

Suspicions mounted.

"Frau Sommer said she had talked to the Fire Brigade men who were

"the first to be called

"and they told her that Gerda had blue marks on her throat."

More evidence against Bruckner.

As the heat arose in a sweltering Berlin,

Fritz and Anny waited for him to respond

to their request for a meeting.

But all they received were broken promises and silence.

Idris was not surprised.

"My feeling is that he will not countenance any such investigation

"but will see that everything is kept as quiet

"as possible for the sake of his own reputation."

'Under blue skies, the aeroplane carrying Herr Hitler...'

On June 14, two days after Gerda's funeral,

Bruckner travelled to Italy with the Fuhrer.

Could it have been the planning of this important state visit

that drew Bruckner back to the Reich Chancellery

on the night that Gerda died?

The Sommers were desperate for answers.

According to the diary,

Bruckner finally agreed to meet with them on June 27th.

But when the day came, Bruckner didn't show.

Instead, he was making preparations, with Hitler, to arrest and detain

the leaders of the SA.

Over the next three days, more than 200

members of Hitler's own party were massacred, including old comrade,

Ernst Rohm.

GUNSHOT

The Night of the Long Knives, as it became known,

sent shock waves around the world, despite the regime's attempts

to disguise the truth.

HE SPEAKS GERMAN:

This was a turning point for Germany. From this moment on,

there was no going back.

And for Fritz and Anny, their search for answers was over.

"Later, I visited the Sommers. Both of them are upset over events,

"especially Frau Sommer, who is not only worried about the thought

"that Gerda had been mixing with people who are in the SA

"and who, like, Bruckner, had taken part in the massacres,

"but, at the same time, has a certain dread of what may happen,

"if they go too far, impressing their request for investigations

"into how Gerda met her death. Both of them have lost faith

"in the National Socialist Party and in their present government.

"Fritz went as far as to despair of Germany altogether."

Gerda was the last of the Sommers.

I have come to Stahnsdorf Cemetery, on the outskirts of Berlin,

to see if I can find the exact place

where Gerda was buried.

7th June, date of death.

12th of June, date of the funeral.

Now, does this tell us where she is buried?

-So, she was buried in Plot 176.

-Yes.

And where would we find that in the cemetery?

Do you have a map of the cemetery?

Cemetery records confirm that there was no headstone,

but the position of other headstones

should allow us to locate the site of the unmarked grave.

That's correct.

We have to take three metres... Yeah, a little bit more. Yes.

-So, we know that Gerda's grave would be to the left.

-This area.

This area here. And, in fact, you can... There is a slight dip

-in the ground.

-This is too big a sign.

Here, there was a coffin in the ground.

And after a long time, it's deeper than the area

and it's a real find, for the place

for Gerda Sommer.

That is amazing that we have found it.

We wouldn't have found it without you.

It's a... It's a very special moment.

Thank you.

It is incredibly sad to think that she is lying here on her own.

No gravestone, of course. The family couldn't afford it.

I suppose the diary is her only memorial.

Gerda may have been the last of the Sommers, but I have managed

to track down the descendants of Anny Sommers' sister,

Frau von Fuhrich. She and her son Heinze were at Stahnsdorf

the day Gerda was buried.

I have come to Ulm, in southern Germany,

to meet Heinze von Fuhrich's children, Helga and Klause-Deiter.

-I am very afraid! Please come in.

-Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We have here...a photograph of...

-Oh, ja!

-..Fritz, Anny Sommer, Frau Scheffels...

-Ja.

-Now, is that your...

And Gerda Sommer and my uncle, Idris.

There is the whole family

at home in Berlin.

-This is Gerda?

-Ja.

-This is Gerda.

Oh, that is it.

What did Anny Sommer believe really happened to Gerda?

So, they certainly didn't believe it was suicide?

My uncle, his father died when he was very young,

-and his own background... The family was broken.

-Ja. OK.

And I think he got very close to Fritz and Anny Sommer.

That's right. That's right. Erm...

and I think it was a very important time in his life.

What was it that made Idris return to the diary as an old man?

Surely something more than an urge to tidy loose ends?

Perhaps it was his passion for history and his understanding

of the importance of every act of witness.

Or was it that, for this one year, he lived in close proximity

to a family unit - turbulent to be sure, but alive

and welcoming - the kind of close family unit that escaped him

for the rest of his solitary life?

One thing is certain, the memories of the year he spent in Berlin

never left him - even at the end of his days.

On his final night in the city,

the Sommers presented Idris with a book.

Inside the front cover, Fritz had included a short inscription,

the words of the German author, Goethe.

"If one thinks of it only as mountains, rivers and cities,

"then the world is such a desolate place.

"But as soon as we know one other person who is sympathetic

"to our way of thinking, with whom we can commune in silence,

"then this desolate globe is instantly transformed

"into an inhabited paradise."