The Bunker ( book ) The Bunker ( original German title : Die Katakombe , also published as The Berlin Bunker ) is an account , written by American journalist James P . O ' Donnell and German journalist Uwe Bahnsen , of the history of the Führerbunker in early 1945 , as well as the last days of German dictator Adolf Hitler . Its English edition was first published in 1978 . However , unlike other accounts , O ' Donnell spent considerable time on other , less - famous residents of the bunker complex . Additionally , unlike the more academic works by historians , the book takes a journalistic approach . The book was later used as the basis for a 1981 CBS television film with the same name . Creation . During World War II , O ' Donnell worked in the U . S . Army Signal Corps . On July 1 , 1945 , he was mustered out and immediately took a position as German bureau chief for " Newsweek " magazine . On July 4 , he arrived in Berlin with instructions to get details on Hitler ' s last days , as well as information on Eva Braun . Soon after arriving , he traveled to the bunker complex , which was mainly overlooked by troops ( who were more interested in the Reich Chancellory ) . He found it guarded by two Russia n soldiers , and for the price of two packs of cigarettes , he gained access to it . He found the bunker complex a flooded , cluttered , stinking mess . Ironically ( and essential , given his later work ) , the bunker had not , even at this late point , been systematically investigated by the Russians . Lying around for anyone to pick up were such historic items as Hitler ' s appointment book , Martin Bormann ' s personal diary , the battle log for Berlin , and segments of Joseph Goebbels ' diary . Right in front of O ' Donnell , a British colonel took as a " war souvenir " a blueprint for a reconstruction of Hitler ' s hometown Linz , in Austria . This historic document ( brooded over by Hitler during his last days ) ended up over the colonel ' s fireplace in Kent . As the new bureau chief , O ' Donnell wrote about developments , such as the Russian discovery and identification ( after several mistakes ) of Hitler ' s body in mid - May of the same year . In August , he came upon a strange sight - the Russians were apparently making a documentary reconstructing Hitler ' s final days . Although the bunker complex fell within the Russian sector of Berlin , and even though many of the survivors were captured by the Soviets , it was the Western powers who revealed the first accurate account of Hitler ' s death . The British historian Hugh Trevor - Roper , on November 1 , held a press conference ( covered by O ' Donnell ) where he revealed the generally accepted theory of Hitler ' s death . While O ' Donnell agreed with Trevor - Roper ' s account save for some minor details ( and , in " The Bunker " , continues to agree with it ) , he was unsatisfied with this account . Some reasons he gave were : In 1969 , O ' Donnell met Albert Speer , who had just published his memoirs ( he wrote an article on Speer for " Life " , published in 1970 ) . At this point , O ' Donnell realized that many of the aforementioned witnesses had long since been released by the Soviets . He began to track them down . Over the next six years , O ' Donnell narrowed his list of witnesses to about 50 , and embarked on a project to collate their stories . He usually had these witnesses read his work to verify its authenticity . The book was the result . Witnesses . While O ' Donnell had 50 witnesses , some saw more than others . Below is a rough list of his main sources . He singled out these sources by eliminating individuals who never saw Hitler after April 22 , 1945 . The below observers were captured by the Soviets and held for a decade , and were thus unavailable for many of the initial accounts of Hitler ' s death . While most people were cooperative , a few didn ' t speak to O ' Donnell . Johanna Wolf , another Hitler secretary , declined to talk since she was a " private " secretary . Albert Bormann also refused to cooperate , in this case because of family connections ( he was Martin Bormann ' s brother ) . Many people who had been close to Hitler in the final days , most notably Ambassador Walter Hewel , an old friend of Hitler ' s , committed suicide after the break - out . Many more witnesses died in Soviet captivity , such as Dr . Werner Haase , the last physician to attend Hitler , who had already been gravely ill with tuberculosis in April 1945 . Likewise , other important witnesses , such as Johann Rattenhuber , survived Russian captivity , but died so soon after their release that they could never be properly interrogated . Timeline and Overview . O ' Donnell established the following timeline , which corresponds with most other accounts of the bunker . Some of the above dates can be confusing , as Hitler kept unusual hours - he typically slept until late in the morning , went to bed around dawn , and held his military conferences around midnight or later . Methodology and Controversy . O ' Donnell based the book on interviews . When witnesses disagreed , he evaluated them based on the " reliability " of their other statements , the agreement / disagreement with other witnesses , and with his intuition . Many critics ( especially those from academic backgrounds ) have taken issue with this methodology . Anticipating this , O ' Donnell wrote in the prologue : O ' Donnell asserted that his method - interviewing the witnesses - is superior to the methods used by academics , noting that much of the written documentation was burned or otherwise destroyed in the final days of the war . Also , written accounts do not allow the writer to " read " a person ' s expression . O ' Donnell even noted that many of the people he interviewed , to make a point , would literally " act out " scenes , a touch not found in historical archives . Furthermore , he disputed the reliability of the interrogations of witnesses in 1945 , which are used as primary sources by most historians . He argued that these interrogations , because of the recent occurrence of the bunker events , the end of the war , and worries over possible criminal charges , were about as accurate as " asking the shell - shocked to describe exactly the burst of artillery . " Moreover , many witnesses admitted that they either lied or withheld information during their 1945 interviews , mainly due to pressure from their interrogators ( this was especially true of those captured by the Soviets ) . O ' Donnell argued that the witnesses needed time to " digest " their experiences . However , many critics dispute whether this method was the most reliable . The most cited example was O ' Donnell ' s complete acceptance of Albert Speer ' s claim to have tried to assassinate Hitler . While many professional historians dispute this claim due to lack of evidence , O ' Donnell wrote about it unquestioningly . It is arguable that , if one compares the accounts written in " The Bunker " with those in " Inside the Third Reich " , that O ' Donnell presents the supposed assassination attempt as more dramatic and purposeful . Admittedly , O ' Donnell befriended Speer , and interviewed him 17 times for the book , more than any other witness . O ' Donnell also used hearsay evidence . He used Dr . Schenck for this on numerous occasions , first to discuss Hitler ' s health ( since the doctor at the scene , Haase , died in Russian captivity ) , and to discuss Hitler ' s final conversation with his friend Walter Hewel ( who committed suicide right in front of Schenck ) . O ' Donnell makes several departures from other theories of the bunker events , many of which are criticized because of the above methodology . To name a few : One of the most unusual claims made by O ' Donnell involve the death of Hermann Fegelein , which has never been fully resolved . Witnesses claimed that he was killed partly because Hitler suspected his mistress at the time was a spy . O ' Donnell created an entire theory out of this , and makes the claim that Fegelein ' s mistress actually " was " a spy , possibly a Hungarian working for British intelligence . However , he could not uncover a single scrap of evidence to support his theory , and the British Official Secrets Act deadline in 1975 passed without any corroboration . O ' Donnell clung to the theory , claiming that perhaps something would come up after the 1995 deadline ; but this passed too without any further evidence before O ' Donnell died in 1990 . Although O ' Donnell died before Soviet accounts of the interrogations became available to Western scholars , he made clear that he was extremely suspicious of the contents of the Russian archives . In addition to such testimony being based on politically biased preconceptions , many of the Soviet - captured witnesses told him they were coerced into making statements and admissions that were entirely false . Unlike the Americans or British , the Russians apparently had no qualms about using extreme methods to gain information ( or obtain the type of answers they wanted to hear ) . The Breakout . O ' Donnell ' s main contribution to Führerbunker literature was his account of the " breakout " that occurred on the night of May 1 – 2 , 1945 - no other historian ( or writer ) attempted to describe this event before him . He devotes two chapters to it . The survivors divided into three groups ( a trio of higher - ranking military men , including General Hans Krebs , stayed behind to drink , sing , and commit suicide ) . The three groups left on the evening of May 1 , each waiting a period of time after the others left . Their plan was to head underground , in the city ' s subway line , to emerge to the northwest , outside of the Russian - occupied zone of Berlin . The three groups were : Misch and Hentschel remained behind in the bunker . Misch left ( with Hitler ' s portrait of Frederick the Great ) on the morning of May 2 , but was soon captured by the Russians . Hentschel stayed in the bunker , while some female Soviet army officers looted Eva Braun ' s room around noon before he too was taken by the Russians and flown to Moscow .