Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) (2004), Edition: New Ed, 280 pages
Description
Traudl Junge (then Humps) was 22 years old and dreamt of a career as a ballerina, until the 'opportunity of her life' beckoned. Adolf Hitler appointed this young secretary to his private office and from 1942 until his death she was at his side in the bunker, typing his correspondence, his speeches and even his last private and political will and testament. 'I was 22 and I didn't know anything about politics, it didn't interest me, ' she claims. It was apparently only after the war that this young woman began to realise what had happened and the horrible reality began to dawn on her. She was wracked with guilt for 'liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived.' She'd found him a 'pleasant older man and a good employer'. Her journal, written in 1947, recounts her mostly mundane time typing, making tea, until the coldness of the bunker, the building sense of despair and doom as the war progressed. The journal is topped and tailed with a preface and an afterword, co-written by Melissa Muller, giving the background to the story, the rest of Traudl's unhappy life and her feelings of guilt over her naive actions."… (more)
Media reviews
Until the Final Hour is a remarkable historical document [...] But more than this, it is another painful reminder of how it is possible for a person - or even an entire nation - to sleepwalk slowly into sin. You put the book down and your skin prickles with the knowledge that, out in the world,
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there will always be invisible lines to be crossed. Mistakes: how easily they are made. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member BellaFoxx
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
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.
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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.
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LibraryThing member cindyb29
This was written by a woman who, at the age of 22, became one of Hitler's secretaries. She is naive and unaware of what is actually going on in the prison camps. She paints a picture of 2 Hitlers--the harsh fuhrer, and the paternalistic employer. It goes into very great detail about day-to-day life
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as she travels with his entourage to Wolf's Lair and Berintesgarden in the Bavarian Alps. She stays with him until the end, even after most of his staff has left. She does not apologize for her role during the war, but subsequently feels a great deal of guilt over not realizing how evil Hitler was. Show Less
LibraryThing member lamour
Junge was Hitler's personal secretary from 1942 to the end in the bunker in Berlin in 1945. Never interested in politics, she never realized what the Nazi's were really doing until after the war. She admits she was mesmerized by Hitler who to her was a warm caring man who almost treated her like
She writes about Hitler and his entourage as they enjoyed a life that was unavailable to the average German citizen. She only realized the difference when she went to Munich to visit her mother and saw the bomb damage and the people seeking food and new housing. She tried to ask Hitler about what he was doing about it but he did not seem interested and as far she could see, he never saw a bombed German city in daylight.
She was there in the bunker when Hitler and Braun committed suicide, Hitler gave her a pill to end her life if she wished although he gave her permission to flee. Eventually captured by the Russians, she eventually made it back to Munich where she made a career as a writer and editor although her personal life never lived up to her hopes.
If you wish to find out what went on in the Wolf's Lair or Berchtesgaden, here is a good source. As well, Junge describes the regulars in Hitler's entourage and often explains why she did not like an individual.
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his daughter.She writes about Hitler and his entourage as they enjoyed a life that was unavailable to the average German citizen. She only realized the difference when she went to Munich to visit her mother and saw the bomb damage and the people seeking food and new housing. She tried to ask Hitler about what he was doing about it but he did not seem interested and as far she could see, he never saw a bombed German city in daylight.
She was there in the bunker when Hitler and Braun committed suicide, Hitler gave her a pill to end her life if she wished although he gave her permission to flee. Eventually captured by the Russians, she eventually made it back to Munich where she made a career as a writer and editor although her personal life never lived up to her hopes.
If you wish to find out what went on in the Wolf's Lair or Berchtesgaden, here is a good source. As well, Junge describes the regulars in Hitler's entourage and often explains why she did not like an individual.
Show Less
LibraryThing member linda.marsheells
Detailed memories from an interesting view...that of hitlers last secretary Traudl Junge. Sorry, not sorry that I am not as enamored of her as other readers.
Why? I do not believe she was as naïve as she would like us to believe.
Why? I do not believe she was as naïve as she would like us to believe.
LibraryThing member kslade
Short but great account of seeing the final days of Hitler and the fall of Berlin by one of Hitler's young secretaries. She also has explains herself at the end of the movie, Downfall, which I've seen a few times. That movie is very well done also.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
280 p.; 5.2 inches
ISBN
0753817926 / 9780753817926