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The kitchen, with its latest equipment, was in ruins.
From the large hallway, stairs-some 30 steps-led to the
second floor, where one entered a small hallway opening into a
beautifully-furnished bedroom, 30 x 40 feet. Three windows and
a balcony overlooked the green, charming countryside. The walls
of concrete and steel 10 feet thick protected the sacred bedroom
of Hitler.
Adjacent was a similar room Eva Braun's. Strewn about
Braun's once-dainty room were wreckage and rubble, but one
could distinctly smell the perfume she wore to charm Adolph.
Outside, a few feet from the entrance to Hitler's room, stood
the air-raid shelters-some 20 miles of tunnels built in the moun-
tainside; carved in solid rock 64 steps down from the ground-level
entrance.
Entering an air-raid shelter, we were warned as to booby-traps,
as the place had not been entirely cleared. Here were large living-
rooms, dining-rooms, hospital dispensaries, dental clinics, store-
rooms, motion-picture theatres, sleeping quarters, etc. These huge
quarters were quite different from the cramped air-raid shelters
we had seen in Hitler's chancellery in Berlin. Here also-ruins!
The modern hospital equipment-sun-ray lamps, diathermy ma-
chines for instance-were riddled by bullets, and we saw marks of
sabotage.
Walking through about a mile of the many tunnels, we returned
to the entrance and motored down to Berchtesgaden village, a
place of about 2,000 people. This quaint, pleasant Bavarian spot
had, oddly enough, suffered very little bomb damage. The princi-
pal hotel, Berghof, was delightful.
At the outskirts of the village the German staff had had its
headquarters. There, in 6 immense buildings, the Nazi staff lived
during the summer. We visited one of these, now headquarters of
General Tobin, district commander. It had been the summer home
of Nazi General Keitel, and was one of the loveliest homes anyone
could wish. Just now it had a curious addition. General Tobin
showed us the stockade in which are interned 400 Nazi generals
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