William Vandivert photographed for  LIFE  from the late 1930s to 1948. In April 1945, as Russian and German troops fought bitterly street by street for control of the German capital, it became increasingly clear that the Allies would win the war in Europe. Shortly after the end of the two-week battle, Vandivert was on site, photographing the devastated landscape of Berlin.

Hundreds of thousands died in the Battle of Berlin—including countless civilians, men, women, and children—while countless more were left homeless in the ruins. But it was two particular deaths, that of Hitler and his longtime companion and (briefly) wife, Eva Braun, in a squalid underground bunker on April 30, 1945, that truly signaled the end of the Third Reich. Vandivert was the first Western photographer to gain access to Hitler’s Führerbunker after the fall of Berlin, and several of his images of the bunker and the destroyed city were published in  LIFE in July 1945.  Some of these images are republished here; however, most of the images in this gallery remained—until now—unpublished and illustrate the surreal, disturbing scenes Vandivert witnessed in the bunker itself and in the streets of the ruined, defeated city beyond the bunker’s concrete walls.

Some of the fiercest fighting between German and Soviet troops took place on Oberwallstrasse in central Berlin in the spring of 1945.

Hitler’s bunker was partially burned down by the retreating German troops and robbed of all valuables by the invading Russians.

A 16th-century painting allegedly stolen from a Milan museum.

Using only candles as a light source, war correspondents examine a bloodstained sofa (see dark stain on the back of the sofa) in Hitler’s bunker.

Abandoned furniture and debris in Adolf Hitler’s bunker, Berlin, 1945.

Documents (mainly news reports from April 29, the day before Hitler and Eva Bruan committed suicide) from Hitler’s bunker, Berlin, 1945.

A Russian soldier stands in Adolf Hitler’s bunker, Berlin, 1945.

Desk in Adolf Hitler’s bunker, Berlin, 1945.

The cap of an SS officer, on which the infamous death’s head emblem is barely visible.

A destroyed, empty, and probably looted safe in Hitler’s bunker.

LIFE  correspondent Percy Knauth (left) searches through debris in the shallow ditch in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, where, Knauth learned, the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned after their suicide.

In the garden of the Reich Chancellery, Berlin, 1945.

Bullet-riddled guard bunker in front of Hitler’s bunker, Berlin, 1945.

An unidentified hand on the destroyed hinge of the door to Hitler’s bunker, burned by advancing Russian sappers, Berlin, 1945.

Empty gasoline canisters allegedly used by SS troops to burn the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun after their suicide in the bunker, Berlin, 1945.

Russian soldiers and a civilian attempt to move a large bronze Nazi eagle that once stood above an entrance to the Reich Chancellery, Berlin, 1945.

An American soldier, Private Douglas Page, gives a mocking Nazi salute in the bombed-out ruins of the Berlin Sportpalast. The venue, destroyed in an Allied bombing raid in January 1944, was the site where the Third Reich frequently held political rallies.

At the Reichstag, there are testimonies of a centuries-old practice: soldiers scribbling graffiti to honor fallen comrades, insult the defeated, or simply proclaim: ”  I was here. I survived  .” Berlin, 1945.

An image that symbolizes Berlin in 1945 almost too perfectly: a shattered globe and a bust of Hitler amidst the rubble in front of the destroyed Reich Chancellery.

This is the first of approximately 20 pages of notes William Vandivert wrote for the New York editorial board of  LIFE  . In it, he describes not only the pictures he took, but also the atmosphere during his tour of Hitler’s bunker and the Reich Chancellery grounds. (An example of Vandivert’s succinct, vivid notes: “…view of the Chancellery building…completely bombed, burned, and bombed to the bone.”)