Traudl Junge just after World War II.

Traudl Junge (born Gertraud Humps; 16 March 1920 – 10 February 2002) was Adolf Hitler's youngest personal private secretary, from December 1942 to April 1945. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (684x714, 178 KB)Traudl Junge in November 1945 - this being her state identitiy card photograph File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (684x714, 178 KB)Traudl Junge in November 1945 - this being her state identitiy card photograph File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (76th in leap years). ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Hitler redirects here. ... A secretary is an administrative support position. ...

Biography

Marriage and the war

Gertraud Humps was born in Munich (Bavaria), 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. Munich (German: , pronounced  ; Austro-Bavarian: Minga [1]) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria. ... The geographic region and Free State of Bavaria (German:  ), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ...

In June 1943 she married the SS-officer Hans Hermann Junge (1914 – 1944), who died in combat. She worked at Hitler's side in Berlin, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, in East Prussia and finally, back in Berlin. After the war Junge was sent to a Russian prison camp and, on her release, returned to Germany to work as a secretary and later, a sub-editor. The   (German for Protective Squadron), abbreviated (Runic) or SS (Latin), was a large security and military organization of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) in Germany. ... Hans Hermann Junge (1914 – 13 August 1944) was a German SS-officer whose wife Traudl Junge was Adolf Hitlers last personal private secretary, from 1942 to 1945. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... There is more than one thing called Berghof: The Berghof was Adolf Hitlers home, now demolished, in the mountains of Bavaria. ... Berchtesgaden is a town in the German Bavarian Alps. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ...

Traudl Junge, as seen in Im toten Winkel.

Following the war Junge was not widely known outside the academic and intelligence communities. Other than appearing in the television documentary The World at War (1974) she lived a life of relative obscurity. This included two brief periods of residence in Australia, where Junge's younger sister still lives.[1] Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... The World at War was a 26-episode television documentary series on World War II, as well as the the events leading up to it and following in its wake. ...

She returned to the public eye with the release of an autobiography, Until the Final Hour (2002) (written with author Melissa Müller), which described the time she worked for Hitler. She was also interviewed for the 2002 documentary film Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary. This suddenly brought her much attention and for a few days she was accorded something approaching global celebrity when, aged 81, she died in a Munich hospital. Until the Final Hour is a memoir of the last days of Hitlers government, written by Traudl Junge. ... Melissa Müller (left) with Alice Herz-Sommer. ... Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ... Im toten Winkel poster. ... Munich (German: , pronounced  ; Austro-Bavarian: Minga [1]) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria. ...

Her book was used as a source for the movie Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004), much of which is told from her perspective. Excerpts from Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary were also used in Der Untergang. Der Untergang (2004; international English title Downfall) is a German film depicting the final days of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1945. ...

Working for Hitler

Before her appointment as Hitler's secretary she had girlish dreams of becoming a ballerina. "I was 22 and I didn't know anything about politics, it didn't interest me." Junge later said she felt great guilt for "...liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived."

Traudl Junge's memoirs.

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." Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1536x2472, 915 KB)Cover of Until the last hour book - This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1536x2472, 915 KB)Cover of Until the last hour book - This work is copyrighted. ...

Junge also claimed Hitler and his inner circle almost never mentioned Jews (a statement which some historians reject, attributing it to a kind of "self-induced amnesia").

She said Hitler did not like cut flowers because he did not want to be (in his words) "surrounded by corpses." Junge said he spent much of the time during his final days staring blankly and saying little.

Alexandra Maria Lara in a scene from the film Der Untergang depicts Junge's escape from the bunker after Hitler's death.

Junge typed Hitler's last private and political will and testament in the Berlin Führerbunker shortly before his suicide. Alexandra Maria Lara as Traudl Junge _ still from official French website for the film Downfall This is a screenshot of a copyrighted movie or television program. ... Alexandra Maria Lara as Traudl Junge _ still from official French website for the film Downfall This is a screenshot of a copyrighted movie or television program. ... Alexandra Maria Lara Alexandra Maria Lara (left) as Traudl Junge in Der Untergang Alexandra Maria Lara is an actress born as Alexandra Plătăreanu on 12 November 1978 in Bucharest, Romania. ... The last will and testament of Adolf Hitler was dictated by Hitler to his secretary Traudl Junge in his Berlin Führerbunker on April 29, 1945, the day he and Eva Braun married. ... This is a reconstruction of the layout of the Führerbunker. ...

She wrote that while playing with the Goebbels children on 30 April 1945, "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." The Goebbels family on October 29, 1942: (back row) Hilde, Harald Quandt and Helga; (front row) Helmut, Holde, Magda, Heide, Joseph and Hedda. ... April 30 is the 120th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (121st in leap years), with 245 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

Traudl Junge was not saved by a boy with whom she walked through Russian lines, but was raped many times by Russian soldiers (as were many other German women during the fall of Berlin in 1945) and was held for several months as the "personal prisoner" of a high-ranking Russian officer. ^[1].

Traudl Junge died of cancer ^[2] in Munich on February 10, 2002. Shortly before her death she is reported to have said, "Now that I've let go of my story, I can let go of my life."

Quotes

*Traudl Junge was born in March 1920, Scholl in May 1921^[3] The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces The Verdict in Nuremberg. ... Hans Scholl, Sophie Magdalena Scholl, and Christoph Probst, who were executed for participating in the White Rose resistance movement against the Nazi regime in Germany. ... March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... May is the fifth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ...

See also

• Third Reich
• Der Untergang (Downfall)
• Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary
• Erna Flegel

Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Downfall (German: Der Untergang) is a 2004 German film depicting the final days of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1945. ... Im toten Winkel poster. ... Erna Flegel (born July 11, [1911] in Kiel, died February 16, [2006] in Mölln]) was a German nurse. ...

Footnotes

References

• Junge, Traudle, Until the Final Hour, (English edition) London, 2002, ISBN 0-297-84720-1
• Hirschbiegel, Oliver (Director), Downfall, (DVD) 2005, www.momentumpictures.co.uk

External links

• Traudl Junge obituary in the Guardian
• Traudl Junge at Find-A-Grave
• Traudl Junge at the Internet Movie Database
• Illustrated summary and discussion of Blind Spot by a college student in 2006