Roger Gheusens, a Belgian expert on World War II, expressed skepticism today about reports that Martin Bormann. Hitler’s deputy, had been a Soviet agent. That theory was offered by Reinhardt Gehlen, a former Nazi general who reportedly defected to U.S. Intelligence near the end of the war. The theory is contained in Gehlen’s memoirs, due to be published shortly. Gehlen has made public some of its contents. Gheusens, co-author of a book. “Great Spies of Our Times,” wrote in an article in the newspaper Le Soir, that the theory was “highly unlikely.”
He stressed that Bormann had applied “in the most implacable way,” Hitler’s orders for a scorched earth policy in the East and particularly in Russia, a policy which included the massacre of civilians and war prisoners. Stories that Bormann survived the final Russian attack on Hitler’s bunker in Berlin and fled to South America have surfaced repeatedly since the end of the war. Gehlens wrote that Bormann died in 1969. Bormann is presumed to be living in Paraguay.
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