I can't help but think there is more to this movie than that of a simple morality play of do not kill: whether yourself or others. Even Mrs. Junge commentary as an attempt to demonstrate her naivete as a young woman does not rise much above the adage of “If ignorance is bliss...”.
We will show evidence that there are esoteric moments in this film that, when taken as a whole, demonstrate that the writer may wish to lead the curious viewer to reach a different conclusion than a simple moral story or even a story of accepted, indisputable historical fact.
We assume Mrs. Junge commentary at the beginning and end of the movie are superfluous and we will concentrate on the story proper. We begin with the odd statements that are made throughout this film. These statements are often not explained.
Hitler refers to loosing the Romanian oil fields and sends General Keitel to northern Germany to meet with Admiral Dontiz. Hitler refers to long range operations and these operations are not explained.
At the beginning of the film, Hitler states that his dog, Blondie, is smarter than most people. Later, Blondie is poisoned with the reasoning that Hitler wanted to know that the cyanide capsules have not been tampered and are effective. Blondie, of course, would recognize an impostor, or double, of Hitler.
Hitler tells von Greim and Reitsch that there are three armies in Czechoslovakia that will attach the Russians. These armies, plus the new jet fighters, will drive back the invaders. While Greim and Reitsch are taken in by this plan, the truth is that the million soldiers stayed in Czechoslovakia until their surrender less than two weeks later. Their situation is similar to the four hundred thousand soldiers stationed in Norway. For comparison, Norway had a population of not quite three million souls.
Every room and corridor in the bunker is shown with an airtight door in the event that the Allies used poison gas. Based on Germany's experience in the Great War, these precautions are reasonable. Except for the two instances when Hitler is outside, bestowing medals and during his cremation, he is shown in what could be described as a gas chamber.
When Speer enters the bunker, he looks into the adjoining rooms on his way to see Hitler. One of these rooms is the generator room, where the secretaries will later take a smoke break. While they are smoking, Gunsche must come into the room to speak with them. We infer that the generator room is very loud and they would not be able to understand Gunsche if he spoke outside the room.
Everyone in the bunker hears Hitler's fatal shot: from the conference room to the the kitchen. How the shot is heard through the closed air tight door is not explained, therefore, we must assume that the gunshot was not behind an airtight door, but a gun was fired in another location that could be heard throughout the bunker.
As is sometimes found in esoteric writing, we have an error of fact in this movie. Gunsche was given an explicit order from Hitler himself that the door to Hitler's room was not to be opened for ten minutes after the shot. In the movie, only a few moments pass before Gunsche enters the room. There is no mention of this ten minute period in the movie.
It seems as though only Linge and Gunsche see the bodies and wrap them, as the bodies are taken outside, the witnesses in the corridor assume that the bodies are Hitler and Braun. Therefore, there are many witnesses to the gunshot, the bodies and their cremation.
In the movie, Himmler states that the Allies will need him and his SS to keep order after the war. One wonders if he did not have information, as the head of the SS, that he felt the western Allies would want in exchange for his life. It is fortunate for the Allied prosecution that Himmler died. I doubt that any prosecutor would want answers from someone who read a book a day for most of his adult life and could make factual and damning statements like:
“Yes, we operated over 80 concentration camps throughout Germany and occupied areas where we kept political prisoners and people of questionable loyalty; much like the United States. You say that all the death camps, all six of the death camps, are in Soviet occupied Poland? The same Soviet Union that killed 30 million of their own citizens before the war? The same Soviet Union that killed 20,000 Polish officers in 1939 in Ukrainian forests and we later found the mass graves and reported this to the International Red Cross? “
We know that the Allied prosecutors where aware of the structure of Nazi Germany. Hitler was the head of State and the head of the Nazi party and the head of the SS. From the T4 operations, we also know that Hitler had a personal letterhead, indicating he was writing as an individual or private citizen. The Allied prosecutors must have been doubly grateful that Hitler could not take the defense stand:
“Take over the world, you say? I had no intention of taking over the world. How could our Navy compete with the British Navy? We didn't take over the French Navy after France surrendered. In fact, we didn't mobilize our economy for full military production until 1942. Had I known it would become a world war with the American Union involved, I would have told Goring to increase the four year plan in 1939, after Britain and France declared war on Germany”
We know that the Fuhrer could influence crowds ranging in size from beer halls to Nuremberg rallies and this writer believes that the jury and spectators would be no different.
As it turned out, the Allies pressed the "easy button" and lumped the various organizations into the Nazi party, while the SS was designated as a separate criminal organization.
We notice that Misch, who advised on this film, was an unrepentant Nazi. Of the others in the bunker, one wonders how many them repented publicly, but privately had other, less widely acceptable, opinions. It seems that we, the public and the curious, will never know the facts concerning the last days in the bunker.
We take special notice of Martin Bormann. He has more speaking roles than Misch, but this is not really stating much. He is present and, although his lines are few and far between, he benefits the most from other people's missteps: with the betrayals of Goring and Himmler, Bormann becomes Party Minister on Hitler's death. After Goebbels death, Bormann is second only to Admiral Donitz in the German hierarchy.
We speculate that the unexplained references to long range operations, the armies in Czechoslovakia (and Norway) and the introduction of new wonder weapons could mean that New York City may be bombed, not with conventional weapons, but with a nuclear strike.
We maintain that the scene with Keitel could be cut without any effect on the film. Officers were always coming and going so Keitel's absence, if noticed by the viewer, could be explained. The odd and unexplained reference to long range operations would never be seen.
The scene were Hitler learns of Himmler's betrayal could have been cut and the discussion of the Army in Czechoslovakia be left on the cutting room floor. By removing these two scenes, no damage is done to either the structure of the film or the story line. However, with their inclusion, along with the omission of a statement to wait ten minutes to open the door, leads this researcher to suspect that as writer and producer, Mr. Eichinger wished to leave innuendos and subtle clues regarding the true fate of the Fuhrer and Germany's nuclear capabilities in 1945.