Spencer Ratcliff

It’s Munich 1931.
In a plush apartment in Prinzregentenplatz, Geli Raubal is eight months pregnant and dying. She has shot herself after being ordered to ‘get rid of the child’ by the father, a man the world would shortly know as ‘The Fuhrer’.
With Geli’s last breath, the baby takes his first, sparking the biggest secret of Hitler’s life.
The man destined to lead millions to their deaths and become the world’s most evil dictator, never knew his baby survioved; and Wolfgang never knew who his real father was, though Hitler’s sisters, a Cardinal and three notorious Nazi leaders most certainly did know.
Hess, Bormann and ‘Gestapo Mueller’ hide the boy in a Catholic convent and have a secret tattoo printed under the child’s arm. With the support of a pro-Nazi Cardinal and of Hitler’s sisters Paula and Angela, they hide documentary proof of the boy’s parentage in a crypt in Vienna.
Wolfgang is raised by Catholic nuns and priests, but as war threatens, he is adopted out to a gentle, childless couple who treasure him, but who suffer as they watch him become a Nazi fanatic.
From orphanage to specialist Nazi school; from fighting with the Hitler Youth to imprisonment, Wolfgang evolves into a disturbed, psychotic young man, constantly battling his demons and unwittingly displaying traits of his real father.
At war’s end the fourteen year-old is captured, interrogated and eventually allowed home.
Hess is in prison and considered mentally imbalanced, Bormann is missing but Mueller escapes, determined to recover the vast fortune of Nazi gold and diamonds he’s hidden in Bavarian and Austrian lakes.
First he needs to find the crypt and the evidence of Wolfgang’s true ancestry; then he and his network of former Nazi Commandos must track down and kidnap the fleeing, psychotic Wolfgang to use as their figurehead... for the Fourth Reich.

The novel - which is supported by historically accurate quotes of key characters - examines the thoughts, fears, actions, indolence, complicity and conscience of Germans and Austrians, with particular focus on the pro-Nazi leadership of the Austrian Catholic Church, before, during and after WW2.
It brings to life the distorted minds of many notorious war criminals. It explores the horrors of so-called 'mercy killings' at special euthanasia centres, as well as the slaughter and torture inside the Death Camps.
It brings into sharp focus the question of ‘collective silence and guilt' and climbs inside the terrified minds of anti-Nazi adults and innocent children.
It paints an horrendous picture of the living hell before and during WW2, through the eyes, emotions and tears of naive, pliable children - victims of mass indoctrination and horrific, evil abuse.

Hitler ~ The Secret, is the result of two years of detailed historical research and is part one of a trilogy. It is set in Austria, Bavaria and Italy spanning the years 1931 to 1950. The chronology and all non-fictional characters and personality features are authentic, as are descriptions of the cities, towns and buildings.