Berliners Find Nazi Bunker With Arms, Murals Intact

An arms cache and a collection of eerie murals glorifying the Nazis have been found in a World War II SS bunker not far from where Hitler spent his last days before commiting suicide in April, 1945, East German officials said Sunday.

East Berlin border guards made the astonishing discovery a few days ago while carrying out excavation work at Potsdamer Platz, site of part of the Berlin Wall until it was torn down late last year.

East German authorities are engaged in an effort to make the area safe in advance of a charity concert next month to benefit the World War Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief. It will feature Pink Floyd and other rock groups.

While digging operations were in progress, border troops stumbled on cases of rifles, ammunition, grenades, bazookas and SS daggers as well as other Nazi artifacts.

The find was made just 50 yards from a grassy mound that is all that remains to mark the spot where Hitler’s bunker was located. Hitler shot himself there during the last days of the European war.

One mural sequence depicts three strapping helmeted Nazi officers with outstretched black shields bearing SS symbols. They are protecting a model German family, a mother and infant, her blond-haired Aryan husband and two other children. Above the heads of the SS men, two German eagles are symbolized.

Lt. Col. Manfred Fleck, the East German border regiment officer responsible for the Potsdamer Platz crossing point, guided a group of journalists down into the dank and partially flooded bunker complex over the weekend.