By Allan Hall
Daily Mail
January 3, 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343633/Son-Hitlers-deputy-accused-abusing-young-boy-priest.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
The eldest son of Hitler‘s deputy Martin Bormann has been accused of sexually abusing a young boy when he was a priest 50 years ago.
Martin Bormann Jr., 80, who has struggled to come to terms with the murderous past of his father all his life, is said to be 'destroyed' by the allegations.
A 63-year-old man said his mistreatment at the hands of Bormann took place in the early 60s when he was a Catholic priest teaching at the Hearts of Jesus monastery in the Austrian city of Salzburg.
 |
| Martin Bormann, right, with Hitler and foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in an undated photograph. Bormann's son is now accused of abusing a young boy when he was a priest |
The man, a pupil at the monastery, claims the abuse went on for more than a year. Austrian media reported on Monday that the man is seriously ill and incapable of giving interviews.
But his lawyer said that his condition is related to what happened to him all those years ago - and the fact that no-one believed him when he complained, not even his mother and grandmother.
Through his lawyer he said; 'I was so badly injured that for four weeks I could not go to the toilet properly.'
'This abuse ruined his life,' said his lawyer who wants to remain anonymous.
'Both his private and professional life was overshadowed by what happened to him. He has no self respect and no self confidence.
 |
| Here is then-Priest Martin Bormann, Jr. in 1960, around the time he is accused of molestation. He later left the priesthood after falling in love with a nun. The pair married |
'Although this man has marvellous gifts - to paint, to carve wood - and he can appear to be so very cultivated, his experiences as a child can destroy his mood in a second.'
He is one of hundreds of abuse victims who have lodged complaints with the church in Germany and Austria since widespread abuse and its cover-up over decades were revealed early in 2010.
His lawyer said he never undertook a therapy because he was 'too ashamed.'
A former school friend of the man also told Austria‘s Profil Magazine that he was hit by Bormann when he was at the monastery as a pupil.
 |
| The alleged abuse took place at the Hearts of Jesus monastery in the picturesque city of Salzburg, Austria |
The alleged sex abuse victim‘s lawyer added; 'It is too late to save his life but he wants an apology at the very least and that is not too much to ask. Justice and perhaps a few euros as he is also on welfare assistance.'
Bormann Jr., who had Adolf Hitler as his Godfather and who grew up surrounded by the princes of the Nazi regime, was supposed to himself become a leading figure in the movement.
 |
| Bormann was Hitler's personal secretary and 2nd most powerful in the Reich. His son converted to Catholicism and became a priest in 1947 |
His father, Hitler‘s personal secretary and the second most powerful man in the Reich, was tried in absentia at Nuremberg for war crimes and sentenced to death.
Rumours flew for many years that he has escaped the inferno of Berlin at war‘s end and was in hiding in South America.
In fact he died from a shell burst just a few yards from the bunker where Hitler ended his life. His remains were found during roadworks in Berlin in 1972 and identified through DNA testing 26 years later.
His son was born Adolf Martin Bormann and was ardent Nazi who went by the nickname of ‘Kronzi‘ - short for crown prince - among the party elite.
But after he learned of his father‘s crimes he entered the priesthood in 1947, abandoning his family‘s Lutheranism for Catholicism.
With the Hearts of Jesus brotherhood he served many years in the Congo but became disaffected with the priesthood towards the end of the 1960‘s.
Following a near-fatal injury in 1969 he was nursed back to health by a nun, Sister Cordula, who then also renounced her vows. They were married in 1971.
He became a teacher of theology and retired in 1992. As recently as 2001, he toured schools in Germany and Austria, speaking about the horrors of the Third Reich, and has even visited Israel, meeting with Holocaust survivors.
He is also frail through illness in Germany where he now lives and was unavailable for comment although a friend was quoted in the media saying he was 'destroyed' by them.
Father Walter Licklederer of the order in Salzburg where the abuse is alleged to have taken place said he was 'shattered' by the claims.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.