Hitler: The Last Ten Days

In the Führerbunker, Hitler's birthday is publicly celebrated while the senior staff privately nurse despair about the war's trajectory. Hoffmann observes the festive mood around the Führer, noticing the gap between ceremony and reality. The scene sets a stark contrast between outward bravado and the creeping sense of doom.

Hoffmann attends a meeting where Wilhelm Keitel and Hans Krebs warn that Berlin is being encircled. Hitler ignores the warnings and presses forward with an assault led by Steiner. Hoffmann senses the tension between military reality and leadership’s stubborn resolve.

Hoffmann joins other officers and officials, including Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, and Magda Goebbels, in a vow to remain in the bunker. They agree to kill themselves should Berlin fall, sealing a grim pact behind the facade of loyalty. The moment underscores the determination to endure the confinement at all costs.

Hitler refuses to acknowledge the dire reality and articulates grand plans for post-conquest cleansing of the British Isles and Soviet Union. The plan reveals his detachment from the collapsing situation. The senior staff watch with mounting alarm as his fantasies persist.

Hitler demands news on Steiner's attack and learns that Steiner has far too few forces to succeed. With Berlin’s fall virtually assured, he resolves to kill himself rather than be captured. The weight of defeat becomes undeniable for everyone in the room.

Hitler reads a horoscope from 1941 predicting the end of the war and interprets it as a sign that he can still prevail. He is further buoyed by rumors that American and Soviet units have clashed, prompting him to order a renewed assault by Wenck. Hoffmann watches as the mood shifts from resignation to dangerous optimism.

Göring sends a telegram seeking control of the government, which Hitler construes as a coup attempt. He responds by ordering Göring arrested and consolidating power in the bunker. The incident deepens the sense that the military leadership's warnings may have been accurate.

Robert Ritter von Greim is summoned to replace Göring as head of the Luftwaffe. Though initially skeptical, Greim is won over by Hitler’s contagious confidence. Hoffmann slowly realizes that the generals’ assessment of the situation was correct, and that he himself has been duped by the Führer.

As news arrives that Wenck’s counterattack has failed, Himmler’s negotiations for an end to hostilities surface, souring the mood further. Hitler secretly marries Eva Braun and begins making preparations to kill himself. The collapse accelerates as reality clashes with entrenched belief in victory.

Hitler dictates his last will and testament and releases Hoffmann from his suicide pact, giving him a copy to safeguard. Hoffmann leaves the bunker, only to destroy the copy later in disgust at his own complicity with the Nazi ideology. The act marks a personal retreat from the regime’s remaining rationalizations.

Hitler orders a scorched earth policy to render Berlin useless to the Soviets. The generals exchange glances, clearly reluctant, indicating they do not intend to carry out the plan. The directive epitomizes the regime’s final, doomed attempts to deny reality.

Eva Braun kills herself with a sodium cyanide capsule while Hitler is not looking on. He learns of her death and angrily denounces the act as a betrayal, further destabilizing his already fragile psyche. The tragedy intensifies the bunker’s atmosphere of despair.

Hitler commits suicide with a pistol shot, ending his tumultuous reign. In the aftermath, the staff light cigarettes and defy his smoking ban, signaling a final, quiet resistance to the dying regime. The bunker descends into a somber, fevered silence as Berlin’s fate is sealed.