Book Review: "The Bunker" by James P. O'Donnell

The Bunker by James P. O'Donnell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon Book Description

Here is an unforgettable, graphic account of the final days in the Führer's headquarters, deep under the shattered city of Berlin as World War II in Europe drew to a close. From James P. O'Donnell's interviews with fifty eyewitnesses to the madness and carnage—everyone from Albert Speer to generals, staff officers, doctors, Hitler's personal pilot, telephone operators, and secretaries—emerges an account that historian Theodore H. White has hailed as "superb . . . quite simply the most accurate and terrifying account of the nightmare and its end I have ever read."

An outstanding account of the final days of Hitler and those in his inner circle. While the majority of the book deals with the days up till Hitler's suicide, the remainder of the book relates the story of the dangerous escape through Russian lines for those who fled the bunker. James O'Donnell has done a remarkable job of relating the events through 50 eye witness accounts that he collected over a period of nearly 30 years. The author was one of the first group of correspondents allowed in to the bunker by the Russians for a first hand look only 2 months after VE day. He stated that it was an experience that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Where he lacked specific first hand accounts he used deduction as to what events were logical and reasonable to have occurred. This is by far the best book on the final days of Hitler and the Third Reich that I have read.