FILE - Berlin, 29 April 1995 1. Apartment block near site of bunker 2. Woman with dog in apartment block grounds FILE - dateline unavailable 3. Two stills of Adolf Hitler at his headquarters at Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden 4. Still of Eva Braun Berlin - 2 May 2005 5. Rochus Misch, former bodyguard of Adolf Hitler, showing pictures of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun at Hitler's headquarters at Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden 6. Pan pictures of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun 7. SOUNDBITE (German) Rochus Misch, former bodyguard of Adolf Hitler: "There were only a few people at the bunker. Bormann (close adviser of Hitler), Goebbels (propaganda minister), Reichs group leader Axmann, Otto Guensche (Hitler's adjutant) and Linger (Hitler's butler). Hitler said "goodbye" to them and told them that he didn't want to be disturbed anymore. And then I believe after one or two hours someone said 'I think it's done'. He had heard the gunshot. I didn't hear it." 8. Still of the young Rochus Misch in uniform 9. SOUNDBITE (German) Rochus Misch, former bodyguard of Adolf Hitler: "Then the second door to the living room opened and I saw Adolf Hitler lying on the table. I don't remember if he was lying close to the couch where Eva Braun was lying or if he was in his chair. But in any case they were lying close together. Hitler lay like this and Eva Braun had her knees up like this. Eva was wearing a dark blue dress with white ruffles. " 10. Still of Eva Braun at Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden 11. Still of Rochus Mich at the headquarters, Obersalzberg 12. SOUNDBITE (German) Rochus Misch, former bodyguard of Adolf Hitler: "We were always around him. Day and night. The press always exaggerates. Hitler wasn't a monster or a superman. He was normal. That's how he appeared to me during the five years I was with him." 13. Still of Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg 14. Rochus Misch explaining pictures 15. Photos taken by Rochus Misch showing children of Albert Speer (Hitler's architect) and his wife STORYLINE 60 years ago this week on the streets of Berlin, Soviet and German forces were locked in the apocalyptic finale to World War II in Europe. Tens of thousands were dying, and whole city blocks were collapsing in rubble. But 30 feet underground, in Adolf Hitler's bunker, a strange calm had taken hold. Modern apartment blocks now stand beside the site of the infamous bunker, which lies under near-derelict land. But some still have vivid memories of what happened there is the final days of the war. 87-year-old Rochus Misch was an SS Staff Sergeant during the war, and Hitler's bodyguard. On April 30, 1945, Misch - then 27- had just been told that the Fuehrer was not to be disturbed - and everybody knew what that meant. Somebody mustered the nerve to enter the sitting room, and Misch peered inside. What he saw is carved forever in his memory: Hitler crumpled over a table, his cheek streaked with blood from the self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. Eva Braun, whom he had wed two nights before, had taken cyanide. Misch ran upstairs to tell his supervisor the news. By the time he returned downstairs, Hitler's corpse was in a blanket on the floor. Hitler and Braun were being taken above ground to a small garden to be doused in gasoline and incinerated. A member since 1937 of the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler division, originally formed as the Fuhrer's personal bodyguard, Misch was attached to a regular army unit for the invasion of Poland which started World War II. Wounded in action, he was sent back to Germany to recover and was picked in 1940 as one of two loyal SS men who would serve as Hitler's bodyguards and general assistants. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/c1cf752cf91bb85abefd9e2fac303b55 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
• views: 484