James Preston O'Donnell (July 30, 1917 – April 16, 1990) was an American author and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Biography

O'Donnell was educated at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and worked as a journalist, mostly for magazines. He was a friend of the

Kennedy family The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy be ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he served in the

U.S. Army Signal Corps ) , colors = Orange and white , colors_label = Corps colors , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = ...

until July 2, 1945, when he was discharged. He became ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' magazine's German bureau chief. In this capacity, he arrived in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

on July 4. He was assigned to investigate Hitler's death and to obtain information as to Eva Braun. O'Donnell bribed the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

soldier guarding the entrance to Hitler's Berlin bunker becoming the first non-Soviet to examine it. He found and took numerous top secret Nazi documents. After using these documents and interviews with many of the last occupants of the ''Führerbunker'' in his later publications, he became an authority on the

death of Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, died by suicide via gunshot on 30 April 1945 in the in Berlin after it became clear that Germany would lose the Battle of Berlin, which led to the end of World War II in Eur ...

, and ultimately published his collected findings in his 1975 book, '' The Bunker''. After his tenure with ''Newsweek'', O'Donnell worked for many years as a

freelance journalist ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and published pieces in magazines ranging from ''

Life magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

'' to ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

''. He later joined the U.S. State Department as an adviser on Berlin. He spent his last years as a journalism professor at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

. In 2011, historian

Niall Ferguson Niall Campbell Ferguson FRSE (; born 18 April 1964)Biography
Niall Ferguson

credited O'Donnell as one of the few Western observers who accurately foresaw the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

.Ferguson, ''Civilization'', p. 252: "The most uncannily accurate prophecy was by the American journalist James P. O'Donnell in an article entitled "The Ghost Train of Berlin", published in the West German ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

'' magazine ''Das Beste'' in January 1979, which foresaw the destruction of the wall ten years later and even the sale of pieces of the wall as souvenirs." In the 1981

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television movie '' The Bunker'', O'Donnell is portrayed by actor

James Naughton James Naughton (born December 6, 1945) is an American actor and director. He is best known as Michael Bower on '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984-1992) and was also notable for his earlier role as the astronaut Pete Burke in the 1974 single-season telev ...

in a brief scene at the beginning.

Books

* * *

Articles

* O'Donnell, James P. "I Cruised the Rhine on a Marshall-Plan Barge." ''

,'' 3 September 1949. * O'Donnell, James P. "The Ghost Train of Berlin." ''Das Beste'', January 1979. (German)

References

Other sources

* Ferguson, Niall. ''Civilization: The West and the Rest.'' New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.1917 births 1990 deaths Harvard University alumni Boston University faculty American male journalists 20th-century American journalists Historians of Nazism 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers United States Army personnel of World War II