"Die Letzte Schlacht"/aka "The Bunker" (2005)

[stonemint]

Stumbled across this on youtube (of all places) while doing research.
This is a German made-for-tv movie produced in 2005, and is based on the book by Guido Knopp. It was made in the wake of Downfall, but chronicles the stories of the last radio announcer of Grossdeutscher Rundfunk; a DRK Schwester; a young Berlin Jew released by the Gestapo without reason; a German-born Jew who is now a propagandist for the Soviets; a 19 year-old LW Officer cadet; an SS Despatch Courier; and Baron Frietag von Loringhoven, adjutant to General Krebs. Actors play them in what could be called a re-enactment, but it is more of a movie than documentary. The actual people are interviewed throughout the movie.

The youtube video spans 11 parts of about 10 minutes each--really annoying to watch. As usual, don't know why it hasn't been released here in the USA (apparently it was in Australia, where they titled it "The Bunker".)

I liked it, and found it compelling, fascinating, and at the same time entertaining.

Video is avaiable only in Deutschland--the cover is a pic of the Jewish-German Soviet Lieutenant addressing Berlin survivors:

[stonemint]

Encounter with the dreaded Kettenhunde:

[stonemint]

Personally, I thought the uniforms were very well done. Rochus Misch had correct LAH cyphers on his straps, and even Rittmeister Boldt was wearing the Braunschweig skull on his visor hat (Boldt assisted with the screenplay for Hitler: The Last 10 Days.) Krebs and von Loringhoven:

[stonemint]

What I found particularly interesting were 2 things. The first was the interview with Richard Baier, the 19 year-old announcer for Grossdeutscher Rundfunk, the radio station in Berlin that announced the death of Hitler. He recounted (and it was depicted) a literal orgy among the drunken staff of the Rundfunk.

The second was the attempted negotiation of a conditional surrender by Krebs, which I knew about, but had never seen any footage of.

I found a pic of him, taken by the Russians on May 1st, 1945, probably while waiting for Chuikov to see him. This is a man whom fate has not only caught up with, but passed him by. He would be dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in the Bunker (with Burgdorf) only hours later. This has to be the Letzte pic of him ever taken: