Fictional
- Xavier March . A detective in the Kriminalpolizei with the concurrent honorary rank of Sturmbannführer (Major) in the SS, March (nicknamed "Zavi" by his friends) is a 42-year-old divorcé living in Berlin. He has one son, Pili (Paul), who lives with March's ex-wife, Klara. March's father died in 1929 from wounds sustained while serving in the Imperial German Navy during the Great War and his mother was killed in a Royal Air Force bombing raid in 1942. March commanded a U-Boat in World War II and was decorated for bravery and promoted. He married his nurse after the war, but the marriage steadily deteriorated afterward. His military service helped him rise through the police ranks to detective. By 1964, however, he is secretly under Gestapo surveillance for what they correctly perceive to be an intense dislike of the Nazi regime. For example, March refuses to donate to the 'winter-relief', showed "insufficient enthusiasm" for his son's involvement in the Jungvolk, has rebuffed all incentives to join the Nazi Party, tells "jokes about the Party", and worst of all - has shown some curiosity about what happened to a Jewish family who used to live in his present apartment.
- Charlotte "Charlie" Maguire . A 25-year-old American journalist, Maguire has been assigned to Berlin by the fictional news service World European Features . Midway through the novel, she and March fall in love and begin a relationship. Maguire comes from a prominent Irish-American political family but is something of a renegade. The daughter of a U.S. State Department official and German actress who left with him prior to the war, Maguire speaks fluent German without an accent.
- Hermann Jost . An 19-year-old cadet in an SS military academy, Jost was out running when he discovered the corpse which triggered March's investigation. March is certain that Jost witnessed more than he is willing to disclose and at first believes him to be covering up a homosexual relationship with a fellow cadet—a death penalty offense. But ultimately, March persuades Jost to admit the truth—he witnessed the dumping of the body and recognized SS General Odilo Globocnik at the scene. Midway through the novel, Globocnik smugly tells March, "It's over. You have no witness." To March's horror, he learns Jost has been sent to anti-partisan combat in Occupied Russia—a veritable death sentence.
- Paul "Pili" March . March's ten-year-old son, Pili lives with his mother and her partner in a bungalow in the suburbs of Berlin. Pili is a fully indoctrinated member of the Jungvolk — the junior section of the Hitler Youth for boys between the ages of 10 and 14. Later in the novel, Pili denounces his father to the Gestapo, all the while unaware of what they will really do to him.
- Max Jaeger . March's friend and Kripo partner, Jaeger is 50, lives with his wife Hannelore and four daughters in Berlin, and is disinclined to question 'the system'. At the end of the novel Jaeger drives the getaway car that rescues March, but it is revealed that he was the one who has been informing against March since before the novel began, and that March's "rescue" was arranged by the Gestapo as a ruse to find Charlotte Maguire.
- Walther Fiebes . Fiebes is a detective working in VB3, the Kripo's sexual crimes division, along the corridor from March's office. A man with a deeply prurient nature, Fiebes relishes his work investigating sexual crimes cases including rape, adultery, and interracial relationships between "Aryan" women and their Slavic servants.
- Rudolf "Rudi" Halder . March's friend and a crewman on his U-boat, Rudi is now an historian working at the immense Reich Central Archives, helping to compile an official history of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front.
- Karl Krebs . Krebs is an officer in the Gestapo, and is an example of the younger, university-trained SS-men whom Globocnik hates.
Historical
- Odilo Globocnik . An aging Obergruppenführer in the Gestapo and right-hand man of Reichsführer-SS Reinhard Heydrich, nicknamed "Globus". Globus is the principal antagonist of the book, personally responsible for the assassinations of the Wannsee officials. After March's apprehension by the Gestapo, Globus takes over March's interrogation, administering several brutal beatings.
- Arthur Nebe . The chief of the Kripo, Nebe by 1964 is an old man with a sumptuous office in Berlin. Initially appearing to support March's investigation for political reasons despite the Gestapo's involvement, Nebe eventually ascertains the threat posed to the Reich's international standing by March's investigations and weaves a ruse to March so that he reveals the whereabouts of the evidence.
- Josef Bühler . A secretary and deputy governor to the Nazi-controlled General Government in Kraków.
- Wilhelm Stuckart . A Nazi Party lawyer, official and a state secretary in the German Interior Ministry.
- Martin Luther (diplomat) . An advisor to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop,
Historical mentioned
- Adolf Hitler . Elderly and increasingly reclusive Führer of the Greater German Reich. Since the end of the war he has toned down his image, wearing civilian clothing and holding speeches at calm, rather than furious rate.
- Heinrich Himmler . Head of the SS. Himmler remained Reichsführer-SS after the war until he died in a plane crash in 1962.
- Reinhard Heydrich . Heydrich is the current head of the SS and is considered a likely successor to Hitler. He is the principal antagonist of the book, although he never features personally. He ordered the assassinations of the Wannsee officials personally to eradicate all first-hand evidence of the Final Solution.
- Hermann Göring . Göring died in 1951, years before the book storyline of an undisclosed illness. Berlin's International Airport is named after him.
- Joseph Goebbels Goebbels is still alive as of 1964 and remains in charge of the propaganda ministry. His children have become high ranking Nazi officials.
- Winston Churchill . Former British Prime Minister, Churchill fled the country upon Britain's peace agreement with the Reich and now lives in Canada.
- King George VI . The former king of Great Britain. Fled to exile in Canada and lived there until his death in 1952.
- Princess Elizabeth . Princess Elizabeth also fled Great Britain and now resides in Canada, she is a pretender to the British throne.
- Edward VIII . After Britain surrendered, Edward VIII was restored to the throne. He and his spouse Wallis Simpson reign as Emperor and Empress of the British Empire.
- Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. . Current President of the United States.
- Charles Lindbergh . The US Ambassador to Germany.
Also referenced to but never mentioned by name are the Beatles, their recent appearances in Hamburg and their great popularity with young Germans, which have already been condemned in the German press.
Some attendees of the real Wannsee Conference are central to the plot, but the others are already dead at the time of the novel's events.
