Voices From the Bunker is an extremely intense book. It's non fiction (of course :) ). The authors are really just arrangers. They dug through manuscripts from Traudl Junge, Hans Baur, and Otto Günsche to come up with this book. These three were with Adolph Hitler on the last days of his life. Junge was a secratary, Baur his pilot, and Günsche his military advisor and friend. This book was extremely difficult to read. It goes into the details of life in the Fuhrer Bunker, Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun, his last will and testament, and his eventual suicide. Thankfully, it didn't delve into the Goebbels Family and that horrific story. But, it did bring to life the feelings in the bunker, how cloistered it felt, and the pressure of impending doom coming from the Russians.
I did do a light of highlighting in this book because I'm using it as research. And for once it's not on my Kindle so I can share page numbers! But I'm only going to share one quote because I thought it was great. A quick set up: Hitler and his "inner circle" are returning to Berlin from his summer home. They are planning on settling down in the Reich Chancellery and the bunker below. The Allies (America, Great Britain, France etc), have just broken through the German front on the Western Border and the Soviets have just decimated a German garrison in Hungary and are moving into the Eastern side of German. Traudle Junge quotes, "We joked that Berlin was the ideal spot for his headquarters, as it would soon be possible to travel from the Eastern to the Western Front by subway." (pg 136). I think this quote shows how desperate the German situation was becoming. Unfortunately for the German civilians, it would get a lot worse.
This book was really good because I feel like it showed a different side of things. Academically, there are thousands of books about Hitler and the Third Reich. But this book was from his close confidants. Mind you, Hitler still isn't shown in a good light. Junge talks about her disgust for what he had done often. She also mentions how his suicide completely left the German people abandoned and how selfish it was for him to do that. But I think it's good to look at someone from a different perspective. No matter how you slice it, Hitler was an evil man. But he was still a man. This book shows that.
You can get the book here. I recommend it if you have any interest in this period of history.
Hi Aly, thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteI've always been interested in the History of Hitler, but I'm always afraid to actually pick up a book and read it because I dont want to be bored or disapointed. But the book sounds very interesting and I like that it comes from 3 different peoples point of view.