Thousands of civilians died in the Battle of Berlin, including women and children, and countless others were left homeless. On April 30, 1945, two deaths marked the end of the Third Reich: the death of Hitler and the death of Eva Braun, his longtime companion and (shortly) wife.
Vandivert was the first Western photographer to gain access to Hitler’s bunker. LIFE published his photographs in July 1945. Below are a few of these re-released shots; however, most of the photographs in this collection have never been seen before and illustrate the surreal, unsettling scenes that Vandivert found both inside the bunker and outside its concrete walls on the streets of a destroyed, defeated city.
