On Jan. 16, 1945, Adolf Hitler descended a stairway into a tunnel that led to his bunker. Few, if any, Berliners would have noticed their Fuehrer slipping under the surface. The citizens of Berlin had too much else to worry about, such as finding shelter (85 percent of Berlin's housing had been reduced to rubble), catching a few moments of sleep between American and British round-the-clock bombings, and eking out a living in a city where the infrastructure and any sense of the mundane had been destroyed. For the next three months, as Berlin crumbled, Hitler and a few of his closest confidants would rarely see the light of day; a few would not leave the bunker alive.

Click on the pictures to find out about the people of the bunker and the events that unfolded in the place that Albert Speer, Hitler's minister of war production, once called the Isles of the Departed.

A Birthday Celebration view »

"... she was the lady." view »

Eva and Hitler view »

Last Will and Testament view »

Cyanide and Pistols view »

Hitler's "Tombstone" view »

A Family Portrait view »

Another Attempted Cremation view »

The Breakout view »

Burying the Past view »

Hitler's Chair view »

The Remains of the Bunker view »