BORMANN, MARTIN°

BORMANN, MARTIN° (1900–?), Nazi leader. Bormann was born in Halberstadt; his family were postal workers. He enlisted in World War I but too late to reach the front. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925, after having been active in right-wing organizations and having been sentenced to a year in prison. In 1926 he was appointed head of Nazi press affairs and deputy regional commander of the SA. In 1928 he became party treasurer in Munich. By 1933, when he was elected to the Reichstag, he had become chief of staff to Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy. In May 1941 he replaced Hess, who had flown to London, as administrative head of the Party chancellery, which gave him control over Hitler's schedule and thus considerable power. He was active in the Euthanasia program, in the struggle with the churches, and the seizing of art work in the occupied territories. By a decree of Jan. 24, 1942, Bormann was given control over all laws and directives issued by Hitler. As the Fuhrer became preoccupied with the war, Bormann gained considerable control over domestic affairs in Germany. His representatives participated both at the wannsee conference on Jan. 20, 1942, and at the March 6, 1942, conference that dealt with the fate of Jewish partners in mixed marriages and their offspring. According to the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, Bormann took part in the discussions which led to the removal of 60,000 Jews from Vienna to Poland, signing the order of Oct. 9, 1942, in which he declared that the elimination of Jews from Greater Germany could be solved only by applying "ruthless force" in the special camps in the East. On July 1, 1943, he cosigned an ordinance withdrawing Jews who violated the law from the jurisdiction of the courts and placing them under the jurisdiction of the Gestapo. Goering included him in the group of five "real conspirators" along with Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, and Heydrich. He was with Hitler until the end, witnessing his marriage to Eva Braun and the suicide of Goebbels and his family, and even informing Admiral Donitz that he had been appointed the Fuehrer. He even attempted to conduct negotiations with the Soviet Union and then disappeared. In 1946 Bormann, who was the "Grey Eminence" of the Third Reich, was sentenced to death in absentia by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. His exact whereabouts after the war remained unknown. The attorney-general of Frankfurt opened a case against Bormann and a reward of 100,000 DM was posted for information leading to his arrest. In 1973 the West German government accepted the report of a forensic expert who examined a body purported to be Martin Bormann's and declared him dead. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, 2 (1946), 896–915; H.R. Trevor-Roper, Bormann Letters (1954); J. Wulf, Martin Bormann: Hitlers Schatten (1962); J. Mc-Govern, Martin Bormann (Eng., 1968). (Yehuda Reshef / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)