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Til den bitre ende
Traudl Junge fue la secretaria personal de Hitler entre diciembre de 1942 y su suicidio en el búnker el 30 de abril de a945. Ella estaba presente cuando el 20 de julio de 1944 se perpetró el atentado contra él, y fue a ella a quien Hitler dictó su testamento político y privado. En muy poco tiempo, la sencilla muchacha muniquesa que quería ser bailarina fue a parar al centro del poder nacionalsocialista. nada más acabar la guerra, Traudl Junge puso por escrito sus vivencias en el búnker del Führer y en el Berghof, pero el manuscrito, un valiosísimo documento histórico, no se había publicado hasta ahora. En este libro, Melissa Müller enmarca biográficamente el texto de Traudl Junge a través de una introducción biográfica y un amplio epílogo basado en conversaciones con ella. Responde así a la pregunta de cómo pudo suceder que aquella joven ingenua ocupara un lugar junto al hombre que destruyó la vida de millones de personas en el momento en que otra joven muniquesa, Sophie Scholl, ya había comprendido las dimensiones del crimen de Hitler y había sido asesinada por oponerse al régimen. Además, Melissa Müller explica cómo veía Traudl Junge su pasado, que acompaña a su vida como una sombra, y describe su horror al reconocer su ingenuidad y su culpa.
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"In 1942 Germany, Traudl Junge was a young woman with dreams of becoming a ballerina like her sister, when she was offered the chance of a lifetime. At the age of twenty-two she became private secretary to Adolf Hilter, and she served him for two and a half years, right up to the bitter end. Her memoir, which she wrote not long after the war when the memories were still fresh, offers a unique and chilling glimpse of the human face of this man known to posterity as a monster." "As part of the secretarial pool, Junge observed the intimate workings of Hitler's administration. She traveled back and forth with him between the Wolf's Lair in eastern Prussia and Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, and finally to the bunker in Berlin. She typed correspondence and speeches, including Hitler's public and private last will and testament. She and the other secretaries ate their meals and spent evenings with him, as well as with Eva Braun and high-ranking Nazi officials. She was close enough to hear the bomb that was intended to assassinate Hitler in the Wolf's Lair. She heard the shot with which Hitler ended his life, and smelled the bitter almond odor of Eva Braun's cyanide pill." But while Junge was witness to crucial events in Hitler's last years, it is her precise, detailed observations of the outwardly normal, almost mundane quality of day-to-day life with Hitler that prove most disturbing in her memoir. In this she confirms once again - as did Victor Klemperer in his diary I Will Bear Witness - what Hannah Arendt has called the banality of evil.
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"In 1942 Germany, Traudl Junge was a young woman with dreams of becoming a ballerina like her sister, when she was offered the chance of a lifetime. At the age of twenty-two she became private secretary to Adolf Hilter, and she served him for two and a half years, right up to the bitter end. Her memoir, which she wrote not long after the war when the memories were still fresh, offers a unique and chilling glimpse of the human face of this man known to posterity as a monster." "As part of the secretarial pool, Junge observed the intimate workings of Hitler's administration. She traveled back and forth with him between the Wolf's Lair in eastern Prussia and Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, and finally to the bunker in Berlin. She typed correspondence and speeches, including Hitler's public and private last will and testament. She and the other secretaries ate their meals and spent evenings with him, as well as with Eva Braun and high-ranking Nazi officials. She was close enough to hear the bomb that was intended to assassinate Hitler in the Wolf's Lair. She heard the shot with which Hitler ended his life, and smelled the bitter almond odor of Eva Braun's cyanide pill." But while Junge was witness to crucial events in Hitler's last years, it is her precise, detailed observations of the outwardly normal, almost mundane quality of day-to-day life with Hitler that prove most disturbing in her memoir. In this she confirms once again - as did Victor Klemperer in his diary I Will Bear Witness - what Hannah Arendt has called the banality of evil.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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3063 people want to read
About the author
Traudl Junge
2 books18 followersTraudl Junge (born Gertraud Humps) was Adolf Hitler's youngest personal private secretary, from December 1942 to April 1945.Gertraud "Traudl" Humps was born in Munich, the daughter of a master brewer and lieutenant in the Reserve Army, Max Humps and his wife Hildegard (née Zottmann). She had a sister, Inge, born in 1923. As a teenager she thought of becoming a ballerina.
Traudl Junge began working for Hitler in December 1942. She was the youngest of his private secretaries.
"I was 22 and I didn't know anything about politics, it didn't interest me", Junge said decades later, also saying that she felt great guilt for "...liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived."
She said, "I admit, I was fascinated by Adolf Hitler. He was a pleasant boss and a fatherly friend. I deliberately ignored all the warning voices inside me and enjoyed the time by his side almost until the bitter end. It wasn't what he said, but the way he said things and how he did things."
At Hitler's encouragement, in June 1943 Junge married Waffen-SS officer Hans Hermann Junge (1914–1944), who died in combat in France in August 1944. She worked at Hitler's side in Berlin, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, at Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, and lastly back in Berlin in the Führerbunker.
In 1945 Junge was with Hitler in Berlin. She typed Hitler's last private and political will and testament in the Führerbunker a day and a half before his suicide. Junge later wrote that while she was playing with the Goebbels children on 30 April, "Suddenly [...] there is the sound of a shot, so loud, so close, that we all fall silent. It echoes on through all the rooms. 'That was a direct hit,' cried Helmut [Goebbels] with no idea how right he is. The Führer is dead now."
On 1 May Junge left the Führerbunker with a group led by Waffen-SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke. Also in the group were Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur, chief of Hitler's Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) bodyguard Hans Rattenhuber, secretary Gerda Christian, secretary Else Krüger, Hitler's dietician Constanze Manziarly and Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck. Junge, Christian and Krüger made it out of Berlin to the River Elbe. The remainder of the group were found by Soviet troops on 2 May while hiding in a cellar off the Schönhauser Allee. The Soviet Army handed those who had been in the Führerbunker over to SMERSH for interrogation, to reveal what had occurred in the bunker during the closing weeks of the war.
Traudl Junge began working for Hitler in December 1942. She was the youngest of his private secretaries.
"I was 22 and I didn't know anything about politics, it didn't interest me", Junge said decades later, also saying that she felt great guilt for "...liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived."
She said, "I admit, I was fascinated by Adolf Hitler. He was a pleasant boss and a fatherly friend. I deliberately ignored all the warning voices inside me and enjoyed the time by his side almost until the bitter end. It wasn't what he said, but the way he said things and how he did things."
At Hitler's encouragement, in June 1943 Junge married Waffen-SS officer Hans Hermann Junge (1914–1944), who died in combat in France in August 1944. She worked at Hitler's side in Berlin, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, at Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, and lastly back in Berlin in the Führerbunker.
In 1945 Junge was with Hitler in Berlin. She typed Hitler's last private and political will and testament in the Führerbunker a day and a half before his suicide. Junge later wrote that while she was playing with the Goebbels children on 30 April, "Suddenly [...] there is the sound of a shot, so loud, so close, that we all fall silent. It echoes on through all the rooms. 'That was a direct hit,' cried Helmut [Goebbels] with no idea how right he is. The Führer is dead now."
On 1 May Junge left the Führerbunker with a group led by Waffen-SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke. Also in the group were Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur, chief of Hitler's Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) bodyguard Hans Rattenhuber, secretary Gerda Christian, secretary Else Krüger, Hitler's dietician Constanze Manziarly and Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck. Junge, Christian and Krüger made it out of Berlin to the River Elbe. The remainder of the group were found by Soviet troops on 2 May while hiding in a cellar off the Schönhauser Allee. The Soviet Army handed those who had been in the Führerbunker over to SMERSH for interrogation, to reveal what had occurred in the bunker during the closing weeks of the war.
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October 4, 2018
It was quite unexpected for me that Traudl Junge’s memoirs proved to be so fascinating. She was a secretary of Adolf Hitler from 1942 to his last day in the bunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945. Traudl wrote her memoirs in 1947, consequently only two years after Hitler’s death and her own narrow escape from the Russians. I found it a remarkable account by Frau Junge, because it is very clear that Traudl is looking at the people she lived and worked with on a daily basis with the eyes of a 22 year old. She had no idea of or interest in politics and merely was grateful for a good job with such a prestigious man. In contrast, all other memoirs and autobiographies of people surrounding Hitler at the time are politically influenced, often trying to condone their part in the gruesome story.
Hitler was obviously pretty fond of Traudl Junge. He had two much older secretaries and needed more assistance. Traudl was one of ten girls applying for the job. Upon viewing the row of these ten girls in front of him, Hitler only wished to talk to her and hired her on the spot. She was a diligent and adaptable person and he was obviously very satisfied with her work. He always called her ‘my child’. The job entailed that you could be summoned to work day and night and required that you lived in the same place as Hitler and his immediate staff, all of them SS officers plus civilian cooks, valets and physicians. The entire personal staff moved twice a year to the Berghoff in Bayern and to the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia and vice versa. Hitler only stayed in Berlin secretely now and then for a short period. It was clear he did not like Berlin. As to the travelling between the two permanent residences, it is quite shocking to read that Hitler nor his staff ever encountered anyone outside his close circle consisting of Himmler, Goebbels, Speer and Bormann and a few more high ranking nazi's, nor did Hitler ever see the bombed out cities or the hardship of the people with his own eyes, as they were always travelling with blinded windows in the trains they used or travelled by car only in the dark of night.
It is, therefore, so fascinating that you get information from Traudl of the daily life with Hitler which was actually rather uneventful from her point of view. She tells you about the interior of the Berghoff and the Wolf’s Lair in great detail, the numerous rooms and halls, how they were decorated, what paintings were on the wall, how thick carpets were, where the bedrooms were located. To my knowledge, there is no other author or biographer who ever talked about these details of daily life in these residences. It was pretty revealing how terribly bourgeois daily life with Hitler was. How shocking it is then to realize what decisions were daily made behind the closed doors of which his staff had no idea of nor never heard about.
Reading her memoirs, it is clear that Traudl had no idea that she was dealing with the greatest war criminal that had ever lived. She thought it was odd that he called himself a genius, but that was the only time she thought he was saying something rather distasteful. But for us, the reader, it is quite strange and enlightening to read what very strange hours Hitler was keeping and forcing all his staff to do the same. He had a tea party every evening around 10 o’clock, talked about nothing but pleasantries and forcing people to stay up till 02.00 in the morning. Then he would not show himself again till noon the following day. He then worked and met people in the early afternoon and subsequently forced all his staff to walk with him to a small tea house on his property and stay a couple of hours, playing with Blondi, his dog, and having only non-political conversations. Everyone in his employment had to participate in this routine and spend extraordinary amounts of time just sitting around. He was a strict veganist and did not drink. Traudl often remarks that his food looked horrible, it was gruel and fried eggs on a daily basis. It is only when they are all staying in the Berlin bunker at the end of the war, that Hitler suddenly preferred to spend his time with only his three secretaries and Eva Braun and does not tolerate anybody else at lunch and dinner. He declares that this is the only way he can get distraction from his troubles and can enjoy uncomplicated cheer which only the women can provide. What does that say about the mental state of the Fuhrer? He has obviously given up.
It is not until the end of the 60’s en 70s that Traudl realizes to what monsters she had been exposed and that she was in a rather unique position to have witnessed the last days in the bunker and even having typed Hitler’s last will and testament. It was around that time that people started to learn the full impact of what had transpired during WW-II. Traudl became a subject of interest and she was shocked to be pressed by people to shake hands, solely because they liked to shake the hand of a person who had shook hands with Hitler. Traudl began to be deeply upset and traumatized by her past and never quite recovered from the shock of being so close to the center of evil and not being aware of it. She had years of psychotherapy, but remained a traumatized person until she died.
I thought it is a very interesting memoir. It must be quite unique that a person who was not a member of the nazi party and had no political knowledge lived in such a close proximity to Hitler and could tell how his daily life looked like. After Hitler’s suicide, most of the people in his close circle tried to escape, but either got caught and sentenced to death or put in prison. Some escaped. I am not aware of anyone close to Hitler told the private story in such an extensive way as Traudl Junge did.
Hitler was obviously pretty fond of Traudl Junge. He had two much older secretaries and needed more assistance. Traudl was one of ten girls applying for the job. Upon viewing the row of these ten girls in front of him, Hitler only wished to talk to her and hired her on the spot. She was a diligent and adaptable person and he was obviously very satisfied with her work. He always called her ‘my child’. The job entailed that you could be summoned to work day and night and required that you lived in the same place as Hitler and his immediate staff, all of them SS officers plus civilian cooks, valets and physicians. The entire personal staff moved twice a year to the Berghoff in Bayern and to the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia and vice versa. Hitler only stayed in Berlin secretely now and then for a short period. It was clear he did not like Berlin. As to the travelling between the two permanent residences, it is quite shocking to read that Hitler nor his staff ever encountered anyone outside his close circle consisting of Himmler, Goebbels, Speer and Bormann and a few more high ranking nazi's, nor did Hitler ever see the bombed out cities or the hardship of the people with his own eyes, as they were always travelling with blinded windows in the trains they used or travelled by car only in the dark of night.
It is, therefore, so fascinating that you get information from Traudl of the daily life with Hitler which was actually rather uneventful from her point of view. She tells you about the interior of the Berghoff and the Wolf’s Lair in great detail, the numerous rooms and halls, how they were decorated, what paintings were on the wall, how thick carpets were, where the bedrooms were located. To my knowledge, there is no other author or biographer who ever talked about these details of daily life in these residences. It was pretty revealing how terribly bourgeois daily life with Hitler was. How shocking it is then to realize what decisions were daily made behind the closed doors of which his staff had no idea of nor never heard about.
Reading her memoirs, it is clear that Traudl had no idea that she was dealing with the greatest war criminal that had ever lived. She thought it was odd that he called himself a genius, but that was the only time she thought he was saying something rather distasteful. But for us, the reader, it is quite strange and enlightening to read what very strange hours Hitler was keeping and forcing all his staff to do the same. He had a tea party every evening around 10 o’clock, talked about nothing but pleasantries and forcing people to stay up till 02.00 in the morning. Then he would not show himself again till noon the following day. He then worked and met people in the early afternoon and subsequently forced all his staff to walk with him to a small tea house on his property and stay a couple of hours, playing with Blondi, his dog, and having only non-political conversations. Everyone in his employment had to participate in this routine and spend extraordinary amounts of time just sitting around. He was a strict veganist and did not drink. Traudl often remarks that his food looked horrible, it was gruel and fried eggs on a daily basis. It is only when they are all staying in the Berlin bunker at the end of the war, that Hitler suddenly preferred to spend his time with only his three secretaries and Eva Braun and does not tolerate anybody else at lunch and dinner. He declares that this is the only way he can get distraction from his troubles and can enjoy uncomplicated cheer which only the women can provide. What does that say about the mental state of the Fuhrer? He has obviously given up.
It is not until the end of the 60’s en 70s that Traudl realizes to what monsters she had been exposed and that she was in a rather unique position to have witnessed the last days in the bunker and even having typed Hitler’s last will and testament. It was around that time that people started to learn the full impact of what had transpired during WW-II. Traudl became a subject of interest and she was shocked to be pressed by people to shake hands, solely because they liked to shake the hand of a person who had shook hands with Hitler. Traudl began to be deeply upset and traumatized by her past and never quite recovered from the shock of being so close to the center of evil and not being aware of it. She had years of psychotherapy, but remained a traumatized person until she died.
I thought it is a very interesting memoir. It must be quite unique that a person who was not a member of the nazi party and had no political knowledge lived in such a close proximity to Hitler and could tell how his daily life looked like. After Hitler’s suicide, most of the people in his close circle tried to escape, but either got caught and sentenced to death or put in prison. Some escaped. I am not aware of anyone close to Hitler told the private story in such an extensive way as Traudl Junge did.
January 29, 2021
Traudl Junge presented something that few other's could accomplish -- she made Adolph Hitler appear human. Without question, Hitler was one of the most horrible men (if not THE most) in history. Yet she presents a side of Hitler that we never see in most histories of the time -- a softer, somewhat informal, almost fatherly figure. Some readers may reel at the idea of presenting a softer Hitler, yet I think that this view actually answers an essential question that any serious student of Nazi Germany asks -- what was it that people saw in Hitler that made them want to follow him at all costs (literally). I've always felt there had to be someone besides the raving maniac that we commonly see, after all he was revered (quite wrongly history has proven rightfully) by so many. Junge perhaps fails to adequately question her actions at the time as Hitler's secretary. Only later in her life did she confront that question in all its painful aspects. Unfortunately, as a reader, I can't help but feel that perhaps Junge would never be able to understand her own actions. Sometimes we are unable to see ourselves fully, and despite a lifetime of self-reflection, Junge appeared unable to do that. I felt to some extent that she held back somewhat in explaining herself. She had to, at the least, find no discomfort at the anti-semitism that must have been rampant in the Nazi inner circle, but she doesn't address that at all. Yet, given the pain of what she experienced, and how it had to haunt her for the remainder of her long life, I guess that is the best we can find. Some lives defy rational explanation as this autobiographical account attests.
May 25, 2019
Een interessant en zonder veel emotie geschreven verslag van de schrijfsters secretaressebaan bij Hitler 1943-45. Ze zegt dat ze niets wist van 'buiten', dat ze in Hitlers gevolg meereisde en dat er nauwelijks nieuws tot haar kwam. Maar als ze in een treincoupé zit, op een met zijde beklede bank, denkt ze aan al die andere mensen in treinen zonder eten en bezittingen, dus misschien weet ze meer dan ze doet voorkomen. Met name de laatste tien dagen met Hitler in de bunker in Berlijn vond ik interessant, een getuigenverslag.
November 16, 2014
Whilst reading this book, I wondered to myself: how much blame can you put on the shoulders of a young secretary for the sins of the employer?
It’s very easy, with hindsight and knowledge, to look at her recollection of events with scorn and bewilderment. You’re talking about what Hitler ate for dinner? Why don’t you talk about the millions of Jewish people who were killed for goodness sake? And it is such that you need to remove expectations from your perception of Traudl and place yourself in her shoes, and the shoes of the German population during the war. At the very heart of her story is a young woman, desparate to follow in her sisters footsteps and dance ballet in Berlin, and takes the only opportunitiy offered to her, and in doing so is pulled into a world she never imagined entering in the first place.
As a collective, it’s evident that there was a lot of “turning a blind eye” to what was occurring, and indeed Traudl herself mentions this in her memoirs. As a secretary to Hitler, she had access to speeches and highly confidential material, and also wined and dined with Hitler in his places of residence during the war. However the majority of the story centres on normalizing Hitler. He was lonely. He cared for his staff. He was a vegetarian and ate bland meals.
Therefore, what we see is not an analysis of horror, it’s the normalization of extraordinary war times and the charismatic, hypnotic spell that Hitler spun over entire nations. Traudl is vague in parts, where the excuse for actions is “I don’t know why I did it, but I was compelled to do it by some unknown force at the time”. Perhaps Traudl’s greatest accomplishment is in the banality of life at close quarters with Hitler. Humanising such a figure is no easy task, however Traudl manages to make him appear bland in her stories of life in bunkers.
There is a brash indifference in this memoir for the many who suffered at the hands of her boss. She declares at the end that she no longer wishes to die (Hitler’s spell finally broken) but was curious to live. I can’t help but think that callous in the wake of all those others who never received the chance to be curious about life through no decision of their own.
It’s very easy, with hindsight and knowledge, to look at her recollection of events with scorn and bewilderment. You’re talking about what Hitler ate for dinner? Why don’t you talk about the millions of Jewish people who were killed for goodness sake? And it is such that you need to remove expectations from your perception of Traudl and place yourself in her shoes, and the shoes of the German population during the war. At the very heart of her story is a young woman, desparate to follow in her sisters footsteps and dance ballet in Berlin, and takes the only opportunitiy offered to her, and in doing so is pulled into a world she never imagined entering in the first place.
As a collective, it’s evident that there was a lot of “turning a blind eye” to what was occurring, and indeed Traudl herself mentions this in her memoirs. As a secretary to Hitler, she had access to speeches and highly confidential material, and also wined and dined with Hitler in his places of residence during the war. However the majority of the story centres on normalizing Hitler. He was lonely. He cared for his staff. He was a vegetarian and ate bland meals.
Therefore, what we see is not an analysis of horror, it’s the normalization of extraordinary war times and the charismatic, hypnotic spell that Hitler spun over entire nations. Traudl is vague in parts, where the excuse for actions is “I don’t know why I did it, but I was compelled to do it by some unknown force at the time”. Perhaps Traudl’s greatest accomplishment is in the banality of life at close quarters with Hitler. Humanising such a figure is no easy task, however Traudl manages to make him appear bland in her stories of life in bunkers.
There is a brash indifference in this memoir for the many who suffered at the hands of her boss. She declares at the end that she no longer wishes to die (Hitler’s spell finally broken) but was curious to live. I can’t help but think that callous in the wake of all those others who never received the chance to be curious about life through no decision of their own.
March 27, 2014
I first became aware of Traudl Junge through the TV series "The World at War" during the 1970s. She spoke of her time with Hitler in the Fuehrerbunker in Berlin during the final days of the war. What she said in those interviews conveyed to me a heightened atmosphere that was surreal and veering on ghoulishness.
Several years later, I had the chance to see the German film, "The Bunker", which brought Frau Junge back to mind. So, when I learned that she had written a book about her time as one of Hitler's secretaries, I bought it and found it an interesting book. For anyone with an interest in the history of life in Germany during the Third Reich, this is the book to read.
Several years later, I had the chance to see the German film, "The Bunker", which brought Frau Junge back to mind. So, when I learned that she had written a book about her time as one of Hitler's secretaries, I bought it and found it an interesting book. For anyone with an interest in the history of life in Germany during the Third Reich, this is the book to read.
May 26, 2016
I didn't think it was possible, but after reading this, I think I hate Hitler even more than before. Don't get me wrong, I didn't start reading this book thinking that it would really change my views on the man all that much, but reading about how he was hiding in a relatively comfortable bunker safe from bombings with good food and his girlfriend besides him while all around him people were dying in concentration camps, fighting his battles and starving to death is infuriating. Besides that, he died in a relatively painless way and seemed relatively okay with his most loyal officers committing suicide alongside him. If anything, the descriptions of Hitler as a relatively normal guy who liked dogs and charming conversation made him more frightening than ever to me. What sort of person can feel that much emotion over his dog dying after he's wiped out most of Europe?
The most heartbreaking moment in this book was the story of the Goebbel children who were basically murdered before their parents committed suicide. I realize that the Russians were bearing on them and that they had a reputation for being exceptionally brutal so maybe their parents thought they were sparing them a more painful death, but it still seems so wrong that they died so young.
As far as the author goes, I'm a little surprised at the lack of sympathy that I have for her. I don't think I quite believe her claims that she knew nothing of his genocidal plans. I think she was very young and naive and that she was captivated by Hitler's charisma (like much of Germany was at the time). I also wonder if maybe she was able to rationalize working for him because she wasn't directly involved in the killing. I am surprised at the amount of emotion this book stirred up in me. The first part was fairly dry, but the ending provided a lot of firsthand info.
The most heartbreaking moment in this book was the story of the Goebbel children who were basically murdered before their parents committed suicide. I realize that the Russians were bearing on them and that they had a reputation for being exceptionally brutal so maybe their parents thought they were sparing them a more painful death, but it still seems so wrong that they died so young.
As far as the author goes, I'm a little surprised at the lack of sympathy that I have for her. I don't think I quite believe her claims that she knew nothing of his genocidal plans. I think she was very young and naive and that she was captivated by Hitler's charisma (like much of Germany was at the time). I also wonder if maybe she was able to rationalize working for him because she wasn't directly involved in the killing. I am surprised at the amount of emotion this book stirred up in me. The first part was fairly dry, but the ending provided a lot of firsthand info.
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September 7, 2025Isn't strange to think how much power the Nazi era still holds? I feel like every time I come into contact with a direct link to it, it burns me nearly with its strange fixations.
I do wonder if I feel this way because I was born in Hamburg and spent the first decade of my life there. Echoes of the war were certainly a part of life, even in the nineties. Gentrification was setting in all around my mother's small apartment, so that every other month a construction firm would dig up an unexploded Allied bomb, and the whole inner city had to be evacuated.
Our whole floor was a monument to the war actually. The apartments downstairs from us were lovely gilded 18th century affairs. Ours was a plain fifties addition. My mother told me very matter of factly that it was because the top of the building had been bombed straight off before even she was born. My grandmother told me how they used elephants from the Hagenbeck Tierpark to carry big pieces of wood and steel when they were rebuilding the city. As a child I always liked the thought of those big strange creatures helping build my bedroom.
That was as much as either of them ever talked to me of it as a child. They don't begin to teach Nazi history in German school until, at eleven, you reach the fifth grade, so mostly my idea of the war was vague. My grandmother told me lots of her childhood in 1920s Weimar Republic (More specifically the lost German eastern lands), and if wheedled, some of the funny stories about Africa in the 1960s. There was nothing in between. Only something that had wiped out most of my grandmother's extended family. Something that carried shame with it.
I learnt nearly everything important at once upon arriving in Australia. There's no shame and regret in war when you're on the winning side. I remember finding it incredibly distasteful, even as a ten year old, of how we had to lay flower wreaths on ANZAC day, or wear poppies on Rememberance Day. Not because I didn't feel sorry that people had died (never that!), just because as a German, I was raised to view national pride with extreme suspicion. To this day I don't know the German national anthem, but spent every morning of my school days in Brisbane singing the Australian one.
Lots of boys in my school had Dads or Granddadswith weird fixations upon the two World Wars. From them I heard mostly terrible pronounciation (the particularly wrong "Die Waffe! Auf nach Deutschland!" rings in my mind still) but none of it was ever in particular bad spirits.
It was not until I reached the seventh grade that I had any serious problems. We began studying the Second World War under the supervision of our homeroom teacher, an old-ish battle-axe called Mrs H. I've never met anyone since who still had such a vivid hate for Germany. She nearly cried everytime she described all the 'brave boys' we'd lost to the terrible Nazis. She made us play games at lunchtime were some of us were the 'good' Allied Forces and the rest were 'evil' German bullets.
I don't know why I told her I was German. I could have gotten away that whole term with hiding under my half-African ancestry. But as a child I sometimes did things just to see what would happen. I was endlessly curious about human nature I think. Mrs H. was like a bruise someone had told me to avoid touching.
Well, the next few months were hell. I was never a star student, but my half-baked focus in class had always earned me B's and an occassional A in art until then. Now I could do nothing right. She was also our art teacher and she graded my work so harshly that it went from being my favourite subject to my least favourite in a matter of months. All the while she was teaching us about the concentration camps, the medical experiments, the Blitzkrieg... always looking at me.
I told my Mum about it eventually. I think I tried to make a joke out of it. Something along the lines of 'look at me- I'm not exactly the Aryan posterchild! What does she think would have happened to me back in those days?' But Mama was not fooled. She requested a parent teacher conference the next week. I wasn't in the room when they spoke, but after that Mrs H reverted to being a normal teacher again.
Anyway, what I'm trying to get at with that very long anecdote (sorry!) is that Nazi Germany still holds an insane amount of power, so much that it managed to reach out, and make my life at school, in a different continent, six decades on, hell for a few months.
Recently I've been doing a lot of research into the Third Reich through books, documentaries and films. I think I've finally reached that point where I want to understand what happened, rather than seperate myself from it. I think what always gets to me is that the Germany of the time is still a country I recognise. I look at Traudl Junge's picture and I read her words, and I recognise her. It actually boggles my mind. How could this regime of people, who are nothing more or less than very German people, at the same time be in the spell of someone who was committing such atrocities?
These memoirs are fascinating and very well written. I didn't rate the book because I don't know how I feel about it at all. It's like touching the still-hot coals of a pack of devils. Just because they're dead doesn't mean their negative power is completley faded yet. I felt tired and consumed while reading about Hitler's endless tea parties. I'm glad the book exists, but I think I need a break before I immerse myself in something so evil and strong again.
I do wonder if I feel this way because I was born in Hamburg and spent the first decade of my life there. Echoes of the war were certainly a part of life, even in the nineties. Gentrification was setting in all around my mother's small apartment, so that every other month a construction firm would dig up an unexploded Allied bomb, and the whole inner city had to be evacuated.
Our whole floor was a monument to the war actually. The apartments downstairs from us were lovely gilded 18th century affairs. Ours was a plain fifties addition. My mother told me very matter of factly that it was because the top of the building had been bombed straight off before even she was born. My grandmother told me how they used elephants from the Hagenbeck Tierpark to carry big pieces of wood and steel when they were rebuilding the city. As a child I always liked the thought of those big strange creatures helping build my bedroom.
That was as much as either of them ever talked to me of it as a child. They don't begin to teach Nazi history in German school until, at eleven, you reach the fifth grade, so mostly my idea of the war was vague. My grandmother told me lots of her childhood in 1920s Weimar Republic (More specifically the lost German eastern lands), and if wheedled, some of the funny stories about Africa in the 1960s. There was nothing in between. Only something that had wiped out most of my grandmother's extended family. Something that carried shame with it.
I learnt nearly everything important at once upon arriving in Australia. There's no shame and regret in war when you're on the winning side. I remember finding it incredibly distasteful, even as a ten year old, of how we had to lay flower wreaths on ANZAC day, or wear poppies on Rememberance Day. Not because I didn't feel sorry that people had died (never that!), just because as a German, I was raised to view national pride with extreme suspicion. To this day I don't know the German national anthem, but spent every morning of my school days in Brisbane singing the Australian one.
Lots of boys in my school had Dads or Granddadswith weird fixations upon the two World Wars. From them I heard mostly terrible pronounciation (the particularly wrong "Die Waffe! Auf nach Deutschland!" rings in my mind still) but none of it was ever in particular bad spirits.
It was not until I reached the seventh grade that I had any serious problems. We began studying the Second World War under the supervision of our homeroom teacher, an old-ish battle-axe called Mrs H. I've never met anyone since who still had such a vivid hate for Germany. She nearly cried everytime she described all the 'brave boys' we'd lost to the terrible Nazis. She made us play games at lunchtime were some of us were the 'good' Allied Forces and the rest were 'evil' German bullets.
I don't know why I told her I was German. I could have gotten away that whole term with hiding under my half-African ancestry. But as a child I sometimes did things just to see what would happen. I was endlessly curious about human nature I think. Mrs H. was like a bruise someone had told me to avoid touching.
Well, the next few months were hell. I was never a star student, but my half-baked focus in class had always earned me B's and an occassional A in art until then. Now I could do nothing right. She was also our art teacher and she graded my work so harshly that it went from being my favourite subject to my least favourite in a matter of months. All the while she was teaching us about the concentration camps, the medical experiments, the Blitzkrieg... always looking at me.
I told my Mum about it eventually. I think I tried to make a joke out of it. Something along the lines of 'look at me- I'm not exactly the Aryan posterchild! What does she think would have happened to me back in those days?' But Mama was not fooled. She requested a parent teacher conference the next week. I wasn't in the room when they spoke, but after that Mrs H reverted to being a normal teacher again.
Anyway, what I'm trying to get at with that very long anecdote (sorry!) is that Nazi Germany still holds an insane amount of power, so much that it managed to reach out, and make my life at school, in a different continent, six decades on, hell for a few months.
Recently I've been doing a lot of research into the Third Reich through books, documentaries and films. I think I've finally reached that point where I want to understand what happened, rather than seperate myself from it. I think what always gets to me is that the Germany of the time is still a country I recognise. I look at Traudl Junge's picture and I read her words, and I recognise her. It actually boggles my mind. How could this regime of people, who are nothing more or less than very German people, at the same time be in the spell of someone who was committing such atrocities?
These memoirs are fascinating and very well written. I didn't rate the book because I don't know how I feel about it at all. It's like touching the still-hot coals of a pack of devils. Just because they're dead doesn't mean their negative power is completley faded yet. I felt tired and consumed while reading about Hitler's endless tea parties. I'm glad the book exists, but I think I need a break before I immerse myself in something so evil and strong again.
January 20, 2014
After reading this book, I still cannot determine whether the main character, Tradul Jung, was naive or caught in the times. Honestly, probably both. She provided an interesting perspective of Hitler that I've never seen before. He's written in a more fatherly ideal, with some moments of his stereotypical behaviours. I think what bothered me most is the fact that in the end she has such guilt & is so lost because of her past, but yet still finds normalcy by having an affair with a married man for many years until his death. It's as though she doesn't learn from her turmoil & continues in a destructive pattern.
September 18, 2010
What if, instead of being insanely evil 24 hours day, Hitler was mostly just a quiet vegetarian who detested cigarette smoke, loved his dog and was polite and warm to his staff? And all with a tidy early-Emo haircut?
Before you pick this up, ask yourself this: Do you really want to read a book that presents a human side to Hitler? If your answer is, "Yes", then by all means read this. If your answer is, "No", then continue in your delusion that Hitler was actually the human embodiment of evil and that nothing terrible will ever happen again because Hitler took care of that and we're good now. Psssst. Your answer should be, "Yes". Banality of evil and all that.
Traudl is an interesting character who clearly felt warmly toward her boss but chastises herself throughout the book for not being more aware of what was going on around her. She pulls no punches and makes no excuses. She simply explains that she, like many, were just apathetic about politics. They accepted what they'd heard about how wonderful national socialism would be and thought it was bound to be better than what they had. Sound familiar?
Before you pick this up, ask yourself this: Do you really want to read a book that presents a human side to Hitler? If your answer is, "Yes", then by all means read this. If your answer is, "No", then continue in your delusion that Hitler was actually the human embodiment of evil and that nothing terrible will ever happen again because Hitler took care of that and we're good now. Psssst. Your answer should be, "Yes". Banality of evil and all that.
Traudl is an interesting character who clearly felt warmly toward her boss but chastises herself throughout the book for not being more aware of what was going on around her. She pulls no punches and makes no excuses. She simply explains that she, like many, were just apathetic about politics. They accepted what they'd heard about how wonderful national socialism would be and thought it was bound to be better than what they had. Sound familiar?
September 7, 2012
I just don’t think anyone is really that naive, really this bordering on the very stupid I don’t care how young you were. Do you really want to read a book written by a stupid person? I think I would have more respect for her if she was a raging anti Semite then this laughable self serving account. I am reminded of the part in Downfall when Hitler is making his last will and she seems terribly surprised by his anti Semitism. Didn’t know what was going on around you, really?
I found it boring and self serving so much so that some of it was bordering on the humorous, I think this must have been written in a time when there was some credibility for the “oh it was all a big secret, we never knew what was going on” story of German history, this has been widely discredited years ago.
You could also forgive this element of the book if it was remotely interesting but its not. It contains boring details of Hitler’s life with very little new details added. Reads like somebody cashing in on a connection they had rather then any real insight.
I found it boring and self serving so much so that some of it was bordering on the humorous, I think this must have been written in a time when there was some credibility for the “oh it was all a big secret, we never knew what was going on” story of German history, this has been widely discredited years ago.
You could also forgive this element of the book if it was remotely interesting but its not. It contains boring details of Hitler’s life with very little new details added. Reads like somebody cashing in on a connection they had rather then any real insight.
February 13, 2014
This book is not a definitive history of World War II, or the Third Reich, or even of Hitler, Traudl Junge makes many errors in the order of things and minor things that happened. It’s also not an attempt to make Hitler look human. It is an account of what it was like to live with Hitler the last few years of his life.
Traudl Junge did not involve herself in the politics of the day, she was more concerned with making a living, helping to support her family, and having some fun> She wanted to become a ballerina, even went to a dance academy but the war intervened. When her plans to become a ballerina fell through, she ended up being hired as a secretary by the Reich Chancellery, a job with good pay and to her young mind exciting. From there she becomes one of Hitler’s personal secretaries.
This is not an exciting book, mainly about the day to day life in the last days of Hitler’s life, Traudl Junge also writes about how Hitler was able to sway people to his way of thinking, remembering that this was written a few years after she mentions how at the time she felt a vague uneasiness, but couldn’t describe it but now realizes what was happening, how those in Hitler’s inner circle were influenced by his personality. There are many endnotes to explain who the people Traudl mentions are and also to explain events that happened differently from what she wrote. Traudle admits that in many places her memory is fuzzy.
An interesting book, well written but a little slow.
Traudl Junge did not involve herself in the politics of the day, she was more concerned with making a living, helping to support her family, and having some fun> She wanted to become a ballerina, even went to a dance academy but the war intervened. When her plans to become a ballerina fell through, she ended up being hired as a secretary by the Reich Chancellery, a job with good pay and to her young mind exciting. From there she becomes one of Hitler’s personal secretaries.
This is not an exciting book, mainly about the day to day life in the last days of Hitler’s life, Traudl Junge also writes about how Hitler was able to sway people to his way of thinking, remembering that this was written a few years after she mentions how at the time she felt a vague uneasiness, but couldn’t describe it but now realizes what was happening, how those in Hitler’s inner circle were influenced by his personality. There are many endnotes to explain who the people Traudl mentions are and also to explain events that happened differently from what she wrote. Traudle admits that in many places her memory is fuzzy.
An interesting book, well written but a little slow.
March 2, 2010
The second half is significantly more interesting than the first, which mainly consists of her descriptions of the rooms and furniture in various buildings she lived and worked in for Hitler. She comes off as being very removed, frequently saying things like "He called me into his office to dictate something, I can't remember what it was." So basically this job is exactly like every other job anyone has ever had? Maybe that's what she's trying to demonstrate; how mundane and routine the goings-on were. It just kind of came off as distracting and unrelated to the narrative. The portion of the book describing the actual final days is far more intense and meaningful, although she continues to gloss over major emotional details in favor of descriptions of decor. The movie that was somehow based on this book, Der Untergang, is an incredible film, and a better way to spend your time if you're interested in the subject, I think.
December 31, 2013
An interesting account by the youngest of Hitler's secretaries, Traudl Junge who worked for him from Dec. 1942 until the end. she was in the bunker and heard the final shot. There was nothing thrilling in her life, it was a mundane job with Hitler as she only saw his kinder side, even urging her to marry her husband who died in 1944 in France. It does show, however how Hitler could mesmerize people into believing he was ok when he was a monster at heart.
September 10, 2025
“I was Hitler's secretary for two and a half years. Apart from that my life has always been unspectacular.”
Says the woman who- amongst other things- finds herself in a prison cell with Erich Raeder’s niece following the occupation of Germany. Engaging read, was a principal influence of the movie Downfall (which was excellent if you haven’t seen it). Throughout the book I got the vibe that she was lonely and sad.
Says the woman who- amongst other things- finds herself in a prison cell with Erich Raeder’s niece following the occupation of Germany. Engaging read, was a principal influence of the movie Downfall (which was excellent if you haven’t seen it). Throughout the book I got the vibe that she was lonely and sad.
January 1, 2026
Határozottan tetszett a könyv, de nem abban az értelemben. Már amióta értesültem a létezéséről, kíváncsi voltam és nem csalódtam. Tetszettek benne a leírások: ahogy a tájat, a hangulatot leírja. Ahogy fokozatosan halad a végkifejlet felé, szinte láttam magam előtt a Berlin utcáin folyó harcokat, a döglött lovat a földön heverni, aminek a húsából az éhező emberek kivájtak maguknak egy-egy darabot. A felrobbant kancelláriát, a mindent körbeölelő, keserűmandula szagú halált. Blondi, az aranyos kiskutyái, majd a gazdájuk. A Göbbels házaspár és a hat csodaszép gyerek, akik egy sokkal jobb sorsot érdemeltek volna. A könyv és a belőle készült film együtt még borzasztóbb elegyet alkot, még nehezebb ép ésszel felfogni, mennyi embert rántott ez az eszme magával a mélybe. A könyv végére az is kiderült számomra, hogy ez a hölgy őszintén megbánt mindent, holott semmit sem tett, csak dolgozott. Sok olyan ember helyett is szégyellte magát, akik inkább megszöktek vagy megölték magukat, semmint szembenézzenek a tetteik következményével. Neki valahogy jobban elhiszem, amit mond, mint Albert Speernek, a „jó nácinak”.
January 10, 2010
Traudl Junge was the youngest secretary hired by Hitler, and the last one -- although he had at least three other secretaries, so her position wasn't totally unique. Her insider's account of the last days with Hitler is interesting, although it's striking just how boring life was for her (and for Hitler, it seems). He's not painted as a madman; rather, as a fatherly, almost courtly figure presiding over a genteel, extended house party. Her descriptions are at odds with history, but that may be because Hitler behaved differently with his soldiers and government than he did with the females in his employ. She gives a fresh perspective, although I don't think I'd read it again -- I find the image of Hitler as father-figure too disturbing.
November 25, 2008
The local librarian recommended this book. My first thought was "Why would I want to read about Hitler's secretary?" but I thought I'd at least give it a try, so I checked it out. It took me FOREVER to get through this book. I just couldn't get into it. It also left me with more questions then answers...I was left wondering how she could have been so naive about the war and the men she worked for.
February 19, 2023
Traudl Junge became Hitler's private secretary in 1942. She was only twenty two years old when she was selected for this position. She met her husband, who was also in service to Hitler, and married him with Hitler's blessing. Her wartime experiences were very interesting on their own, but the insider point of view of Hitler's private behavior and personality was very very interesting to me. I really enjoyed this book a lot.
July 11, 2016
The historical details included in the first half of this book were extremely compelling. The second half which traced Junge's post war experiences and self-examination of her role as Hitler's last secretary was disappointing. It was not well written, lacked conviction, and at times seemed disingenuous. Happy to have it come to an end!
July 17, 2020
What an opportunity to read something from someone who was there. Some of the fanaticism of Germany at that time turns your stomach. However, lest we think it was something unique to Germany we need only look at some of our political rallies and remember the some nine hundred people (including children) who drank the kool-aid in Jonestown. If you have not read the Milgram Experiment I recommend that as well to see what some of us are capable of (as Americans) with the right authority standing over our shoulder.
January 12, 2020
Always ask the secretary. I learned that, many years ago while working as a secretary. They know all and they see all.
In this instance, Trudl Junge was young and naive when she went to work as Hitler's last secretary. She didn't know what questions to ask much less how to ask them. It seems as though she faced each day and each person she met with an inexperienced and naivety that can only be attributed to ambivalence of youth. Thankfully, Ms Junge grew with wisdom and age and shared her story.
This is how "it" starts and how it can be fought. By asking the right questions, and demanding answers.
We need to all hold our governments accountable for any an all intolerable actions.
In this instance, Trudl Junge was young and naive when she went to work as Hitler's last secretary. She didn't know what questions to ask much less how to ask them. It seems as though she faced each day and each person she met with an inexperienced and naivety that can only be attributed to ambivalence of youth. Thankfully, Ms Junge grew with wisdom and age and shared her story.
This is how "it" starts and how it can be fought. By asking the right questions, and demanding answers.
We need to all hold our governments accountable for any an all intolerable actions.
March 25, 2023
Een boek over het leven van de jongedame die er voor koos om als secretaresse van Hitler te gaan werken. Is dit wel goed verwoord ? Kiezen doet ze niet echt ze is naïef en rolt eigenlijk zonder zelf te beseffen in de job. Het boek is een rewrite van wat zijzelf in 1947 noteerde. Het geeft erg goed weer wat ze doet wat ze beleeft en de andere kant van de wrede man ziet. En het is net die persoonlijkheid die haar bind aan de job die ze doet.
January 7, 2021
If you have an interest in WWII or/and the main principles that orchestrated it, especially Hitler, this is a must read. I would read it again if I get the time. A memoir by Hitler's last secretary describes her rise to her position, life living in his private circle, and his end and her capture. If you want to see a different side to this man than read the book is all I'm saying.
February 2, 2020
The book is okay, but the story very impressive
June 6, 2018
I've been avoiding this book on my shelf for years now. It was part of my required reading for a class in my sophomore year of college, and I had been looking forward to reading this particular book, more than all of the other assigned readings. But in the bleak middle of the semester, torn between projects and papers long-since forgotten, surviving the term was of greater importance than reading Traudl Junge's memoirs. So, in a very out of character decision, I didn't read it. I didn't even skim it. I managed to keep quiet for an entire period and then dutifully read every other required text for the rest of the semester. Because I sincerely wanted to read this book, I kept it on my shelf. But because I'm an overachieving perfectionist, when my eyes would glance at the cover while roving through my bookshelf, I would feel guilty twinge and would move on to a different book.
Why do I share this story of my (probably clinical) obsessiveness? Because it is highly appropriate that I associate the feeling of guilt with this book. Because Traudl Yunge's "Until the Final Hour" is a book about dealing with guilt--the guilt of a nation spirited away by a charismatic and horrible dictator and the guilt of the individual, a young, non-political woman who happened to be in the center of the Third Reich.
In 1947, Traudl Junge was trying to put together her life again, along with all of Germany. After regularly being asked about her two and a half years as Hitler's secretary, from 1942 until that fateful day in April 1945, she wrote her memoirs of her time with the Fuhrer. She said later that she enjoyed writing it but thought that no one would want to read it--Germany was trying to move past the war, not dwell in it. She made no attempt to justify or apologize for her actions, or for those who were part of the Nazi government. She just shared what she experienced. 20 years later, she reviewed the memoirs with horror--she struggled with her previous naivety and inability to perceive the evil actions around her. She had been told over and over again after the war that she wasn't to blame for her role in Third Reich. After all, she had been so young. But an older and wiser Junge saw that that wasn't a good enough reason. "Until the Final Hour" is Junge's attempt to remember the events of her employment, to balance that with the knowledge of the horrors of what happened to millions of innocent people, to understand her own culpability, and to accept the failings of her younger self.
Junge's memoir is not an all-encompassing scope of the events of 1942-1945. In fact, some details in her narration are entirely incorrect (my copy had excellent footnotes that explained these discrepancies). Instead, it gave an insider's perspective of how Hitler appeared to those with whom he was most intimate. This wasn't the grand dictator giving rousing speeches or the sinister villain behind the Final Solution. This was the Hitler who was fatherly to a young Traudl, enjoyed spoiling his dog, was fussy about being out in the sun, and ate boring, tasteless food to care for his easily bothered stomach. In fact, a vast majority of the content of Junge's narration is absolutely mundane, focusing on tea parties, traveling, Eva Braun's clothing, and the bickering members of Hitler's staff. But the mundane, ordinariness of the events described are rather disturbing. We know what Hitler, Goebbels, and the other Nazis were capable of. We have seen the images of concentration camps and heard the stories of countless families torn apart by conquest and war. But it's easy to see them as an embodiment of evil and more difficult to acknowledge that they talked liked us, ate like us--were like us. This is why Junge's narration is so important now. It is a written reminder of the, famously quoted, "banality of evil" theory and one that disturbs us to the core. Because it's one thing to see evil in a long-dead historical figure. It's quite another to think that the capacity for this evil exists in "ordinary" people, like our neighbors, friends, and even ourselves. The generation that survived WWII knew this; people of the current era must not forget.
The book was published in German for the first time in 2002. It then inspired the film "Downfall" (which, yes, includes the famous scene of Hitler yelling at his generals that people love to add irrelevant subtitles to), the first movie about Nazi Germany produced in Germany and featuring German actors speaking in German. It demonstrated the amount of healing that had happened between 1945 and the early 2000s for the whole nation. But I wonder if Junge received the same peace for herself. Her memoirs don't make that absolutely clear. What we are left with, however, are the sometimes dazzled reflections of a young woman who was honored to be the secretary of a man she perceived to be great--it's a testimony of the "spell" that Hitler put on a nation, and it begs the question--if we would have been in her shoes, would we have been able to resist it?
Why do I share this story of my (probably clinical) obsessiveness? Because it is highly appropriate that I associate the feeling of guilt with this book. Because Traudl Yunge's "Until the Final Hour" is a book about dealing with guilt--the guilt of a nation spirited away by a charismatic and horrible dictator and the guilt of the individual, a young, non-political woman who happened to be in the center of the Third Reich.
In 1947, Traudl Junge was trying to put together her life again, along with all of Germany. After regularly being asked about her two and a half years as Hitler's secretary, from 1942 until that fateful day in April 1945, she wrote her memoirs of her time with the Fuhrer. She said later that she enjoyed writing it but thought that no one would want to read it--Germany was trying to move past the war, not dwell in it. She made no attempt to justify or apologize for her actions, or for those who were part of the Nazi government. She just shared what she experienced. 20 years later, she reviewed the memoirs with horror--she struggled with her previous naivety and inability to perceive the evil actions around her. She had been told over and over again after the war that she wasn't to blame for her role in Third Reich. After all, she had been so young. But an older and wiser Junge saw that that wasn't a good enough reason. "Until the Final Hour" is Junge's attempt to remember the events of her employment, to balance that with the knowledge of the horrors of what happened to millions of innocent people, to understand her own culpability, and to accept the failings of her younger self.
Junge's memoir is not an all-encompassing scope of the events of 1942-1945. In fact, some details in her narration are entirely incorrect (my copy had excellent footnotes that explained these discrepancies). Instead, it gave an insider's perspective of how Hitler appeared to those with whom he was most intimate. This wasn't the grand dictator giving rousing speeches or the sinister villain behind the Final Solution. This was the Hitler who was fatherly to a young Traudl, enjoyed spoiling his dog, was fussy about being out in the sun, and ate boring, tasteless food to care for his easily bothered stomach. In fact, a vast majority of the content of Junge's narration is absolutely mundane, focusing on tea parties, traveling, Eva Braun's clothing, and the bickering members of Hitler's staff. But the mundane, ordinariness of the events described are rather disturbing. We know what Hitler, Goebbels, and the other Nazis were capable of. We have seen the images of concentration camps and heard the stories of countless families torn apart by conquest and war. But it's easy to see them as an embodiment of evil and more difficult to acknowledge that they talked liked us, ate like us--were like us. This is why Junge's narration is so important now. It is a written reminder of the, famously quoted, "banality of evil" theory and one that disturbs us to the core. Because it's one thing to see evil in a long-dead historical figure. It's quite another to think that the capacity for this evil exists in "ordinary" people, like our neighbors, friends, and even ourselves. The generation that survived WWII knew this; people of the current era must not forget.
The book was published in German for the first time in 2002. It then inspired the film "Downfall" (which, yes, includes the famous scene of Hitler yelling at his generals that people love to add irrelevant subtitles to), the first movie about Nazi Germany produced in Germany and featuring German actors speaking in German. It demonstrated the amount of healing that had happened between 1945 and the early 2000s for the whole nation. But I wonder if Junge received the same peace for herself. Her memoirs don't make that absolutely clear. What we are left with, however, are the sometimes dazzled reflections of a young woman who was honored to be the secretary of a man she perceived to be great--it's a testimony of the "spell" that Hitler put on a nation, and it begs the question--if we would have been in her shoes, would we have been able to resist it?
April 9, 2022
No one can be that naive. No way.
February 24, 2025
Goed verhaal!! Alleen beetje shit dat ik het als luisterboek heb geluisterd, raakte daardoor soms de draad kwijt.
November 26, 2022
Na de film Der Untergang te hebben gezien, was ik benieuwd naar het echte verhaal van de secretaresse van Hitler. Ik moet zeggen : film en boek gelijken treffend op elkaar. Boek leest vlot.
August 18, 2018
3½-4 stars.
July 2, 2022
Interesting read
Interesting look inside Hitler's inner circle and the conflict that would cause after the war by one of Hitler's secretaries. Also a fascinating look at Hitler himself who was kind and compassionate towards Traudl but so sinister to millions.
Interesting look inside Hitler's inner circle and the conflict that would cause after the war by one of Hitler's secretaries. Also a fascinating look at Hitler himself who was kind and compassionate towards Traudl but so sinister to millions.
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