Hitler's Final Moments

Inside the bunker, the atmosphere is tense and bleak. There is no day or night. People live in a continual twilight zone, unable to sleep. They speak in whispers. Hitler is terrified of being taken alive. He is determined not to suffer the same humiliating fate as Mussolini. Telephone operator Rokas Misch and the rest of the bunker staff are all too aware that the closer the Soviets get, the closer Hitler is to taking his own life. Everybody was already half dead. It was very close to the end. I don't know if you can imagine what those days were like. The lack of sleep, the feelings of things coming to an end. That afternoon, Hitler says goodbye to his staff. Then, at about three o'clock, looking old and haggard, he retires to his study with his wife Eva Braun. As the minutes tick by, a tense, anxious silence fills the bunker. We knew he would shoot himself. Everybody was waiting to see whether they could hear the shot. And then somebody called out, I think the time has come. I didn't hear the shot, but someone must have heard it, and when they made the call, everything went quiet. It was quiet for a few minutes. Then we wanted to see what had happened. I can't remember who opened the door. But when the door was opened, I wanted to see. I went over a few paces to the right, and there I could see how Hitler had fallen and Eva Braun was next to him on the sofa. Hitler shot himself in the head as he bit down on a cyanide capsule. For Eva, the cyanide was enough. I can't remember whether it was Hitler or Eva Braun who was carried out first. Then I ran away. I went to the commander of our unit in the new Reich Chancellery and made my report. The Führer is dead. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing mattered. All I can remember doing is closing the large handles of the steel doors. Then I became frightened. I knew this was concrete. How would I get out of here? Could I get out? This is concrete. How do I get out of here? Or at all?