2-611-979 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Martin Bormann, prominent Nazi official, c1930s-c1940s. Bormann (1900-1945) was head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler. By the latter part of the Second World War he was one of the most powerful figures within the Nazi regime due to Hitler's trust in him and his control over access to the Führer. After the fall of Berlin, rumours abounded that Bormann had escaped, and he was sentenced to death in absentia at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. In 1972 human remains were discovered in Berlin by construction workers, and one of the skeletons found was identified as being that of Bormann. A genetic test confirmed the finding in 1998.