Movies - The Bunker

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The Bunker is an account, written by American journalist James O'Donnell, of the history of the Fuehrerbunker in early 1945, as well as the last days of Adolf Hitler. It was first published in 1978.

With works by Hugh Trevor-Roper and Joachim Fest, The Bunker is considered one of the defining works on Hitler's last days. However, unlike many other accounts, O'Donnell spent considerable time on other, less-famous residents of the bunker. Additionally, unlike the more academic works by historians, the book takes a journalistic approach.

Creation

During World War II, O'Donnell worked in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. On July 1, 1945, he was mustered out and immediately took a position as German bureau chief for Newsweek magazine. On July 4, he arrived in Berlin with instructions to get details on Hitler's last days, as well as information on Eva Braun (whose existence was just emerging).

Soon after arriving, he traveled to the bunker, which was mainly overlooked by troops (who were more interested in the Reich Chancellory). He found it guarded by two Russian soldiers, and for the price of two packs of cigarettes, he gained access to it. He found the bunker a flooded, cluttered, stinking mess.

Ironically (and essential, given his later work), the bunker had not, even at this late point, been systematically investigated by the Russians. Lying around for anyone to pick up were such historic items as Hitler's appointment book, Martin Bormann's personal diary, the battle log for Berlin, and segments of Joseph Goebbels' diary. Right in front of O'Donnell, a British colonel took as a "war souvenir" a blueprint for a reconstruction of Linz, Austria, Hitler's hometown. This historic document (brooded over by Hitler during his last days) ended up over the colonel's fireplace in Kent.

As the new bureau chief, O'Donnell wrote about developments, such as the Russian discovery and identification (after several mistakes) of Hitler's body in mid-May of the same year. In August, he came upon a strange sight - the Russians were apparently making a documentary reconstructing Hitler's final days.

Although the bunker fell within the Russian sector of Berlin, and even though many of the survivors were captured by the Soviets, it was the Western powers who revealed the first accurate account of Hitler's death. The British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, on November 1, held a press conference (covered by O'Donnell) where he revealed the generally-accepted theory of Hitler's death.

While O'Donnell agreed with Trevor-Roper's account save for some minor details (and, in The Bunker, continues to agree with it), he was unsatisfied with this account. Some reasons he gave were:

Trevor-Roper only had access to two witnesses - Erich Kempka, Hitler's chauffeur, and Else Krueger, Bormann's secretary. When he wrote The Last Days of Hitler the following year, he only had access to two more witnesses - Hitler secretary Gerda Christian and Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann.
The vast majority of the major witnesses were captured by the Soviets and, without being charged with any crimes, spent the next ten years in Russian captivity. Because the Soviets kept denying that Hitler was really dead, they refused to release their interrogation notes with the other Allies.
Accounts of the bunker centered on major figures, such as Hitler and Goebbels, while paying scant attention to more minor figures. Usually, such accounts stopped after the death of Hitler (or, in some cases, Goebbels). Except for people looking for Bormann (who, for many years, was thought to have survived), nobody bothered writing an account of the "bunker breakout" after Goebbels' death.

In 1969, O'Donnell met with Albert Speer, who had just published his memoirs (he wrote an article on Speer for Life, published in 1970). At this point, O'Donnell realized that many of the aforementioned witnesses had long since been released by the Soviets. He began to track them down.

Over the next six years, O'Donnell narrowed his list of witnesses to about 50, and embarked on a project to collate their stories. He usually had these witnesses read his work to verify its authenticity. The book was the result.

Witnesses

While O'Donnell had 50 witnesses, some saw more than others. Below is a rough list of his main sources. He singled out these sources by eliminating individuals who never saw Hitler after April 22, 1945.

Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments
Gerda Christian, one of Hitler's secretaries
Traudl Junge, another of Hitler's secretaries
Else Krueger, Bormann's secretary
Erich Kempka, chauffeur

The below observers were captured by the Soviets and held for a decade, and were thus unavailable for many of the initial accounts of Hitler's death.

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