Traudl Junge was a German woman who served as one of Adolf Hitler's private secretaries during the final years of World War II. Born in 1920, she grew up in Munich and was educated during the Weimar Republic and the early years of National Socialist rule. As a naive young woman, she was initially enthralled by the power and charisma of the Nazi regime, and in 1942, she applied to work as an office worker in the "Adjutancy of the Führer".
She was selected from several competitors and was offered the position of one of Hitler's private secretaries, which she accepted. In July 1943, she married SS officer Hans Hermann Junge, and in 1944, he was killed in action in Normandy.
Traudl Junge witnessed several significant events during her time as Hitler's secretary, including the failed bomb attack against Hitler on July 20, 1944, and the collapse of the Third Reich in the spring of 1945. She also experienced the internal disintegration of Hitler, who was increasingly isolated and surrounded by Soviet troops.
In April 1945, Junge moved with Hitler and his closest colleagues into the Führerbunker under the New Reich Chancellery, where she witnessed the dictator's 56th birthday celebration on April 20. On the night of April 29, Hitler dictated his political will to her, and she was disappointed by his arrogance and megalomania.
On April 30, 1945, Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker, and Junge fled the bunker with other survivors. After a four-week odyssey, she returned to Berlin, where she was imprisoned by the Soviet occupation authorities.
In 1947, Junge managed to escape to her parents' home on Ammersee in Bavaria, where she was later denazified. She spent the rest of her life trying to come to terms with her experiences, and in the 1940s, she began writing down her memories of the Third Reich.
Junge's memoirs were not published until 2002, when they were edited by journalist Melissa Müller and published under the title "Until the Last Hour: Hitler's Secretary Tells Her Life". The book caused a stir among the German and international public, and it was later adapted into a documentary film and a feature film.
Traudl Junge died of cancer in Munich in 2002, at the age of 81. Her eyewitness testimony provides a unique and intimate perspective on the final years of the Third Reich and the life of Adolf Hitler.
