The promos on the National Geographic Channel announce that a program on Hitler's bunkers under Berlin will be shown tonight. It is known that Hitler spent the last months of World War II living in tunnels dug under Berlin and it's estimated that as many as 100 people were down there with him. Apparently this program will be the first opportunity to see how and where the Nazi leader spent his last days.
One of my favorite books is The Bunker by James P. O'Donnell. a correspondent who got to enter this series of tunnels dug deep under Berlin as the war was coming to an end. As I recall O'Donnell more-or-less accidentally found Hitler's rooms under the city. For 105 days Hitler and approximately 100 associates hunkered 55 feet under the burning city. Apparently Hitler had hiding places prepared all over Germany and moved from one to another, but his last days were spent in this bunker with his inner circle and his mistress Eva Braun. According to O'Donnell Hitler and Braun were married at the end of their stay there and they committed suicide by poison along with Goebbels, his wife and their six children in the very last hours of the war.
O'Dennell interviewed many of the survivors of this rat pack and included many accounts of those who were with Hitler. I misplaced or lost the hardback copy of O'Donnell's book but fortunately a few years ago the Amazon.com used book department was able to find a paperback copy which I now have safely preserved. It is a sobering record of an insane, bizarre leader and the deluded people who believed in him and huddled with him.
Not being fans of the Oscar programs, our set will be focused on this report on the Bunker. If you find a copy of The Bunker by O'Donnell, I suggest you buy it.
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