This never-before-published image not only captures the chaotic state of Hitler’s bunker when Vandivert made his way there in 1945, but also features an item that recalls the wanton gangsterism and greed that characterized Nazi rule: a 16th-century painting looted from a museum in Milan. In the typed notes (see next slide) that Vandivert sent to LIFE’s New York offices “immediately after getting to Berlin,” Vandivert described his intense and harried visit to the bunker: “(Note and note well),” he wrote “These pix were made in the dark with only candle for illumination since lights were only on in two rooms and when we were there there were no lights at all. Our small party of four beat all rest of mob who came down about forty minutes after we got there.”
Blood in the Bunker
With only candles to light their way, war correspondents examine a couch stained with blood (see dark patch on the arm of the sofa) located inside Hitler’s bunker. In his typed notes Vandivert wrote: “Pix of [correspondents] looking at sofa where Hitler and Eva shot themselves. Note bloodstains on arm of soaf (sic) where Eva bled. She was seated at far end …. Hitler sat in middle and fell forward, did not bleed on sofa. This is in Hitler’s sitting room.” Remarkable stuff — but, it turns out, only about half right. Historians are now quite certain that Braun actually committed suicide by biting a cyanide capsule, rather than by gunshot — meaning that the blood stains on the couch are quite likely Hitler’s, and not Eva Braun’s, after all.
Source: LIFE.com, Used with Permission.
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