Squalid sofa where Hitler and Eva Braun sat as they killed themselves revealed in photos released for the first time

Black and white images taken by the first Western photographer to enter the squalid bunker where Hitler and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves have been compiled in a LIFE.com gallery for the first time.

Many of the photos did not make the final cut for the special edition published immediately after the war in 1945, but have been flagged up now after a trawl through the magazine’s archives.

Photographer William Vandivert was the first Western snapper to be granted access into the bunker carved beneath the pompous Reich Chancellery which was reduced to brickdust by Allied bombs and Russian artillery shells.