In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man. "Downfall" explores these final days of the Reich, where senior German leaders (such as Himmler and Goring) began defecting from their beloved Fuhrer, in an effort to save their own lives, while still others (Joseph Goebbels) pledge to die with Hitler. Hitler, himself, degenerates into a paranoid shell of a man, full of optimism one moment and suicidal depression the next. When the end finally does comes, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender. Written by Anthony Hughes {husnock31@hotmail.com} As the Russians advance through Berlin in the spring of 1945, Adolf Hitler and his remaining military and secretarial staff shelter in his large bunker complex in the centre of the city. His mood swings between completely unjustified optimism that his forces will still break through, and rage against the incompetence and betrayal of his military commanders. Reality does finally start to break through and the Fuhrer and the others in the bunker start to make their final personal preparations for the inevitable. Written by Jeremy Perkins {J-26} A non-political person, Traudl Junge, then twenty-four years old and the personal secretary to Adolf Hitler, recounts the two weeks in her life starting on April 20, 1945, the day of Hitler's 56th birthday. Spent primarily in the Führer's bunker, she and many of the leaders of the Nazi party were taking refuge from the siege of Berlin by the advancing Russian troops. It seemed almost a guarantee that the Russians would take control of the city and that Germany would lose the war. Hitler and his military were trying to decide what to do, many giving Hitler the advice of getting out of Berlin and/or surrendering to save the lives of the German civilian population. Hitler made up his own decisions on what he felt stood for his own political ideals, and treated anyone, even during these tenuous times, as being treasonous if they disobeyed his orders. Regardless, many ended up doing what they felt best for themselves despite possible execution by their own if they disobeyed the Führer. As the situation for the Nazi's became more desperate, the more desperate their individual actions became, some following their Führer to the end.
