The Final Days of the Third Reich.

• Author: Levine, Art
• Position: Parody

As told to Woodward and Bernstein

A Note From Charles Peters:

A few months ago, a reporter for Brill's Content, in the midst of interviewing me about another matter, mentioned how delighted she had been by a recent Monthly piece by Art Levine. Unfortunately, the reporter did not express that admiration in her magazine. This has been Art's fate. His fans have never gone public. The only exception is a 1983 article by Laurence Zuckerman in the Columbia Journalism Review, which, in a sidebar, completely reprinted Art's brilliant and very funny sendup of the Monthly (originally published in the magazine in 1979). Otherwise Art is our most unctuous alumnus. He deserves better. If you doubt me, read the parody of The Final Days that follows. Its take on Bob Woodward, as you will see, has been adopted by many writers, all of whom neglected to acknowledge that Art was first to point out Woodward's tendency--in contrast to All The President's Men--to rely on bigshot sources who are treated with kid gloves in return. The most obvious sources were Nixon's White House counsel J. Fred Buzhardt and his chief of staff Alexander Haig. They were less than totally innocent Nixonians, but from The Final Days, you would have thought they deserved canonization. So enjoy and remember to mention Art.

FOLLOWING THE CRITICAL AND COMMERCIAL success of our book The Final Days, our publishers have prevailed on us to bring out a new edition of our early work on Adolf Hitler's downfall, first published in 1947. Here, in embryo form, are the journalistic techniques that were later brought to fruition in The Final Days. Our ability to penetrate the innermost workings of the Third Reich should provide valuable insights for those interested in our methodology.

In the course of reconstructing events, we interviewed 586 Nazis and checked every detail with at least two sources. We divided this massive undertaking into several areas of inquiry, including: Adolf Hitler; the Reichschancellery staff; the SS; the Gestapo; the Propaganda Ministry; the Lutwaffe; the Nazi Party; Hitler's personal physicians; and the public record--statements by Nazi leaders, newspaper articles, memoirs, and official documents of the Third Reich.

From these and other areas of inquiry, we drew up a list of several hundred persons to be interviewed. Some spent many hours with us and volunteered information freely. Several of the principals met with each other to refresh their memories on these important events. Many supplied us with notes, memos, letters, and diaries, which were of immeasurable benefit. We made it clear that we would check all facts with other participants.

All interviewees were assured that their identities would remain forever secret. We vowed to go to our graves with the names of our sources locked within our hearts. Without this rigid security, we would never have been able to get an honest picture of the last days of the Third Reich. Traditional history, with its cumbersome reliance on footnotes and attributed statements, is too often marred by the desire by participants to "sanitize" the record for posterity. We have avoided those pitfalls here. The results speak for themselves.

Bob Woodward

Carl Bernstein

This was an extraordinary mission...