Inside Hitler S Bunker

In this compelling new reconstruction, Germany’s greatest historian of Nazism describes in vivid detail the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Fuhrer's bunker during the bitter last days of the war when, drugged and enfeebled, Hitler veered between hysterical despair and lunatic optimism while his regime disintegrated amid desperate acts of betrayal, recrimination and suicide. 'vivid and creepy, as well as darkly comic' – Mail On Sunday 'unputdownable' - Sunday Times 'Nobody has written a better account' – Observer 'such pace, drama and immediacy that one could almost believe he had been an eye-witness' - The Spectator 'moves like a blood racing thriller' - Catholic Times 'There has never been a more evocative account' - Daily Mail

Relates the final days of World War II in a study of Hitler's final days in the bunker and the torment in Germany's cities and towns as the Third Reich collapsed under the weight of American, British, French, and Russian forces.

By 1945, Hitler had developed a vast concrete bunker of interconnected chambers thirtythree feet beneath the surface of Berlin. In the last months of the war, while desperate battles raged in the ruins above, the Fuhrerbunker was to become the setting for the most dramatic final act in modem history: the collapse of the Third Reich. In this compelling new reconstruction, Germany's greatest historian of Nazism, Joachim Fest, describes in vivid detail the claustrophobic atmosphere of those bitter last days, when a drugged and enfeebled Hitler veered wildly between hysterical despair and lunatic optimism. Using newly available material and drawing on years of meticulous research, Fest shows us how the Nazi regime finally disintegrated amidst acts of betrayal, recrimination and suicide. He also reveals how these desperate last scenes offer fresh insight into the true nature of Hitler and his entourage.

Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his private bunker seventy-five years ago. The lone survivor of Hitler's Berlin bunker tells the story of the final days of the Third Reich.

Collected documents offering a look into the minds of the Third Reich’s leaders in their final days, and at Berlin following the end of World War II. In November 1945, two French officers secretly entered the Führerbunker, the air raid shelter near the Chancellery in Berlin. The bunker was the last home of Adolf Hitler; the background of the last months of his life and the war; where he married Eva Braun on April 29, 1945; and where he killed himself less than two days later. In the middle of a heap of furniture and broken objects, the two officers found hundreds of documents littering the ground. Among the documents that they retrieved were a dozen telegrams of historic importance that allow us to understand the spirit of the last leaders of the Third Reich as well as the events that took place between April 23 and 26, 1945. These and other documents are presented for the first time in this book, shown in their proper context with an expert commentary. “But although the building may have gone, troves of historic documents survived. Now, many have been published for the first time in this new visual history, an excellent guide to the horrendous final days, hours, and minutes of the Third Reich.” —Military History Matters

A compulsively readable account of Hitler's last days, written by one of the first Americans to enter Hitler's bunker after the fall of Berlin

In this compelling new reconstruction, Germany's greatest historian of Nazism describes in vivid detail the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Fuhrer's bunker during the bitter last days of the war when, drugged and enfeebled, Hitler veered between hysterical despair and lunatic optimism while his regime disintegrated amid desperate acts of betrayal, recrimination and suicide. 'vivid and creepy, as well as darkly comic' - Mail On Sunday 'unputdownable' - Sunday Times 'Nobody has written a better account' - Observer 'such pace, drama and immediacy that one could almost believe he had been an eye-witness' - The Spectator 'moves like a blood racing thriller' - Catholic Times 'There has never been a more evocative account' - Daily Mail

As the Soviet troops fought their way ever closer to the Reich Chancellery in the final days of the Third Reich, deep underground in Hitler’s bunker fateful decisions were being made. Hitler and some of those closest to him resolved to commit suicide, whilst others sought to try and escape. But who did manage to slip past the Russian soldiers and reach freedom? How did they escape, and what routes did they take through the ruined streets of Berlin? Equally, what became of those who escaped, where did they go, and what happened to those who did not get away? All of these questions are answered in this book. Following years of research in Berlin, the author has been able to identify the various groups and individuals that left the bunker and has traced the paths taken by those who escaped and those that perished. The final days in Hitler’s bunker are revealed in atmospheric detail, as the Red Army closed in and the inevitable end loomed menacingly nearer with the passing of every hour. Many notable persons, such as Bormann, Speer, Göring and Hanna Reitsch, went to say a last farewell to the Führer, while others, such as Goebbels, prepared themselves for suicide rather than being taken prisoner by the Russians. By using detailed maps showing the escape routes, first-hand testimony from those who survived, photographs of the devastated German capital in 1945, as well as images of the various routes as they can be followed through Berlin today, the author explores the last moments of the Third Reich in startling clarity.