User Reviews

Told from the perspective of those closest to Adolf Hitler during the tyrant's last days in April 1945, "Death in the Bunker" is a revealing portrait of a man obsessed with the hatred and animosity of a megalomaniac on a global scale. The film is actually a Canadian project from Spiegel TV Productions and appears painstakingly thorough in it's coverage of approximately the last 15 days or so of Hitler's life. The interviewees include one of Hitler's personal bodyguards, a former errand boy (an adult now of course), and Hitler's personal secretary, Traudl Junge. With Hitler refusing to accept defeat at the hands of approaching Russian forces surrounding Berlin, it soon becomes increasingly apparent that he will not be taken alive to be used as a propaganda tool by the Allies. What's striking in the archival footage is the virtually total destruction of the city above and surrounding the German Chancellry building, with Hitler's bunker some eight meters below ground. Scenes of the German Twelfth Army fiercely attempting to defend Berlin are surreal in nature, especially when considering that there were already over one hundred thousand suicides among the German population in the Spring of 1945 when the rest of the country realized defeat by the Allies was imminent. Adding to the incomprehensible nature of the moment, Hitler's mistress Eva Braun joined him during these last days in order to marry him (4/29/1945) on the day immediately preceding their suicide. What I hadn't seen before was the grim sight of the charred bodies of Hitler and Braun upon exhumation by Russian forces, along with the tragic sight of the Goebbels family, including their six young children who followed their Fuhrer into the afterlife. "Death in the Bunker" is by no means for the squeamish, but if you're intrigued by the life and death of this notorious madman, this is a rare opportunity to experience those events with as close to first hand witness as you're likely to find.