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Gertraud "Traudl" Junge (; 16 March 1920 – 10 February 2002) was a German editor who worked as
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's last private secretary from December 1942 to April 1945. After typing Hitler's will, she remained in the Berlin ''
Führerbunker The () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (''Führerhaupt ...
'' until his death. Following her arrest and imprisonment in June 1945, both the Soviet and the U.S. militaries interrogated her. Later, in post-war
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, she worked as a secretary. In her old age, she decided to publish her memoirs, claiming ignorance of the Nazi atrocities during the war, but blaming herself for missing opportunities to investigate reports about them. Her story, based partly on her book '' Until the Final Hour'', formed a part of several dramatizations, in particular the 2004 German film ''Downfall'' about Hitler's final ten days.


Early life and education

Gertraud "Traudl" Humps was born in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
, 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. She once expressed her desire to become a ballerina as a teenager but was not accepted by a dance school. She then trained as a secretary. When she heard about an opening on the Chancellery staff, she applied for it.


Work for Hitler

Traudl Humps 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, adding 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." Encouraged by Hitler, in June 1943, Traudl married
Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
officer Hans Hermann Junge (1914–1944), who had been a valet and orderly to Hitler. He 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 East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
, and back again in Berlin in the ''
Führerbunker The () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (''Führerhaupt ...
''.


Berlin, 1945

In 1945, Junge was with Hitler in Berlin. During Hitler's last days in Berlin, he would regularly eat lunch with his secretaries Junge and Gerda Christian. After the war, Junge recalled Gerda asking Hitler if he would leave Berlin. This was firmly rejected by Hitler. Both women recalled that Hitler in conversation made it clear that his body must not fall into the hands of the Soviets. He would shoot himself. Junge typed Hitler's last private and political will and testament in the ''Führerbunker'' the day 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 bull's-eye,' cried Helmut oebbelswith 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 The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
general Wilhelm Mohnke. Also in the group were Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur, chief of Hitler's '' Reichssicherheitsdienst'' (RSD) bodyguard Hans Rattenhuber, secretaries Gerda Christian and Else Krüger, Hitler's dietician Constanze Manziarly, and physician 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 Red Army troops on 2 May while hiding in a cellar off the Schönhauser Allee. The Soviet troops handed over those who had been in the ''Führerbunker'' to SMERSH for interrogation, to reveal what had occurred in the bunker during the closing weeks of the war.


Post-war

Although Junge had reached the Elbe she was unable to reach the western Allied lines and so she went back to Berlin. Arriving there about a month after she had left, she had hoped to take a train to the west when they began running again. On 9 June, after living there for about a week under the alias Gerda Alt, she was arrested by two civilian members of the Soviet military administration and was kept in Berlin for interrogation. While in prison she heard harrowing tales from her Soviet guards about what the German military had done to members of their families in the Soviet Union and came to realise that much of what she thought she knew about the war in the east was only what the Nazi propaganda ministry had told the German people and that the treatment meted out to Germans by the Soviets was a response to what the Germans had done in the Soviet Union. Junge was held in several jails, where she was often interrogated about her role in Hitler's entourage and the events surrounding Hitler's suicide. By December 1945 she had been released from prison but was restricted to the Soviet sector of Berlin. On New Year's Eve 1945 she was admitted to a hospital in the British sector for diphtheria and remained there for two months. While she was there her mother was able to secure for her the paperwork required to allow her to move from the British sector in Berlin to Bavaria. Receiving these on 2 February 1946, she travelled from Berlin and across the Soviet occupation zone (which was to become
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
) to the British zone, and from there south to Bavaria in the American Zone. Junge was held by the Americans for a short time during the first half of 1946 and interrogated about her time in the ''
Führerbunker The () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (''Führerhaupt ...
''. She was then freed and allowed to live in post-war West Germany.


Later life and death

After the war, Junge appeared in two episodes of the Thames Television (ITV) 1973 television documentary series '' The World at War'' – No. 16, "Inside the Reich" (1940–1944), and No. 21, "Nemesis: Germany (February – May 1945)". She was also interviewed for the 1975 book '' The Bunker'' by James P. O'Donnell and Uwe Bahnsen. She worked in secretarial jobs and for many years as chief secretary of the editorial staff of the weekly illustrated magazine '' Quick''. Junge twice resided briefly in Australia, where her younger sister lived, although her application for permanent residence was denied owing to her past Nazi association. In 1989, Junge's manuscript about her life throughout the war was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons (New York) as part of the book ''Voices from the Bunker'' by Pierre Galante and Eugene Silianoff. Also in that year, she was interviewed in the BBC documentary ''The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler'', in which she discussed at length her impressions of Hitler and the final days with him in the ''Führerbunker''. In 1991, she appeared in the documentary series ''Hitler's Henchmen'' produced by German television channel ZDF. The 2002 release of her memoirs '' Until the Final Hour'', co-written with author Melissa Müller, describing the time she worked for Hitler, brought media coverage. She was also interviewed for the 2002 documentary film '' Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary'', which drew much attention. Junge died from cancer in Munich on 10 February 2002 at the age of 81,Hooper, obituary reportedly having said shortly before her death, "Now that I've let go of my story, I can let go of my life." She is buried at Nordfriedhof München. Further attention came two years later, when some of Junge's experiences with Hitler were portrayed in the Academy Award-nominated film '' Downfall'', wherein she is portrayed by actress Alexandra Maria Lara. Excerpts from her interviews are seen at the beginning and at the end of the film. At the end of the film, she states:


See also

* Christa Schroeder * Erna Flegel * Johanna Wolf


References


Citations


General sources

* * Childs, David (18 February 2002)
"Obituary"
''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''. * * * Hooper, John (14 February 2002)
"Traudl Junge obituary"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''. * * Junge, Traudl; Müller, Melissa (editor). ''Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary'', Arcade Publishing, 2004. .


External links

* * * A comic that juxtaposes Traudl Junge with Sophie Scholl
"Witness: The Death of Hitler"
Interview in BBC Radio's
oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...
series "Witness". Speaking in English, Traudl Junge recalls her memories of working with Hitler, and of events in the bunker at the time of his death. {{DEFAULTSORT:Junge, Traudl Deaths from lung cancer in Germany Writers from Munich Secretaries to Adolf Hitler 1920 births 2002 deaths German people of World War II