However, her dreams of dancing were left behind as she and other young women were soon taken to Hitler’s bunker in the forests of East Prussia, to be interviewed for the post of personal secretary to the Führer. She got the job. For Traudl Junge, warned by her mother not to get involved with the Nazis, this would be a fateful moment. She would stay with Hitler until the bitter end, through the more light hearted days at his Bavarian residence, the Berghof, with Eva Braun, through to the Red Army’s shelling of Berlin, and the suicide epidemic in the final bunker.

In Junge’s account, Hitler comes across as kind to women and children, and fond of his dog. Of course, this is not an accurate picture of the man. It’s simply what a 22 year old woman saw during her time with him. The raging, brutal megalomaniac emerged from time to time, but Junge noted that his officers saw this more than the women around him. There is a moment earlier in the book where he talks about Stalin’s leadership technique of getting rid of high ranking officers. There’s also a moment when the wife of an SS man brings up the terrible conditions the Jews are in, during a meal at the Berghof. This is greeted by embarrassed silence. Junge doesn’t record her own reaction to this, except to mention elsewhere that Himmler had told her the concentration camps were well run labour camps. His account even suggested the inmates benefited from being there. Of course, this was a gross misrepresentation of the truth.

Junge soon came to realise, most of all during her days at the Berghof, Hitler’s private retreat, that things were not all they seemed. Instead of being at the heart of things, she realised that the lack of dissent among those around her created an artificial world that cut her off from reality. Hitler did not visit the devastated towns and cities. He didn’t see for himself the consequences of the war for the German people. Traudl and others told him what they’d seen during visits home, but Hitler was supremely confident they’d win in the end. He pulled others along by the force of his belief. Nevertheless, speaking to others around her, Junge came to see that she wasn’t the only one who recognised their disconnectedness from the world.

Hitler’s teetotal state, his vegetarianism, his dislike of smoking, are all well accounted in the book. People around him constantly slipped out for a quick fag. In the final bunker, alcohol flowed freely. The bunker scenes bring to mind Nero fiddling while Rome burns. By this time, Hitler’s Social Darwinism had turned against his own people. Survival of the fittest meant that if Germany lost, it would be because she deserved to lose. He had no interest in saving the civilian population.

But moments of supreme confidence returned, and he believed an army, a general, would arrive to save Berlin. He veered from hopeless collapse to the old maniacal self-confidence. Around him, people deserted the bunker, top Nazis themselves became the subject of his anger - Göring sent a message to say that if he hadn’t heard from Hitler, he would assume the Führer was no longer in a position to govern and would declare himself Reich Führer. As the country lurched towards disaster, the petty internal jealousies of Nazi ministers became more and more evident. Goebbels was determined to stay until the very end, dying with the Führer. But he turned up in tears in Junge’s office, upset because the Führer told him to leave, and he’d never before disobeyed an order. Hitler had already offered to have Junge and the other women flown out, but she refused, in spite of her doubts. Eva Braun promised to stay with Hitler. Braun threw parties in the bunker while the artillery fire of the Red Army pulverised Berlin.

Talk in the bunker moved to suicide and the best way to kill oneself. Hitler favoured a bullet to the head, but Eva wanted to stay beautiful in death, and opted for poison capsule. Junge asked for one herself. The capsule reassured Traudl that she could take her own life quickly and painlessly, if they were captured by the Red Army.

The tragic characters in this book are the Goebbels children. Their mother, Magda, brought them to the Berlin bunker where they would live out their final days, unaware that their parents planned to kill them. Magda would not have them live in a world without National Socialism. Traudl believed the oldest girl suspected something.

Hitler and Evan Braun finally married. They said their goodbyes to their staff, Eva dressed up, her hair freshly washed. Traudl couldn’t remember what Hitler said to her, but Eva told her to try and get out, and to “give Bavaria my love.” The two of them retired to Hitler’s room to commit suicide. Not long after, as she prepared to escape with a group from the bunker, Traudl saw large crates being carried from the children’s room and suspected the worst.

Guilt and responsibility are part of this book’s themes. The memoir, written in 1947, though previously unpublished, is juxtaposed against the old Traudl Junge’s foreword, and additional commentary by Melissa Müller which deals with Junge’s postwar experiences. Initially, Junge did not feel responsible for the Holocaust because she knew nothing about it. As she got older, she began to reassess her part in the Third Reich. Increasingly haunted by guilt, she was appalled by what the memoir revealed about herself. She had doubts about publication. But she had spoken to historians and others over the years. She’d also been open with people she met about her past. Few ever held her responsible for Nazi atrocities. She was let off the hook because of her young age. Junge later came to believe that age was no excuse.

If there’s one thing this document makes clear, it’s the extent to which Hitler’s personality held the whole regime together. As Junge noted, officers would turn up with objections, concerns they wanted to voice about the war, only to find themselves overwhelmed by the power of Hitler’s arguments, even though they seemed to sense that there was a flaw in those arguments. An interview with Junge is available on DVD: “Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary”. The recent film “Der Untergang” (Downfall) is partly based on the latter section of her book. What makes Junge’s memoirs so important is their personal insight into Hitler and his circle. Too often he has been dismissed simply as a megalomaniac, a madman, a monster. But it’s precisely because Hitler could be kind and charming that people followed him. It’s unlikely their allegiance came down simply to patriotism or the force of his personality. Men like Hitler, be they national leaders, or paedophiles and serial killers, get away with things so long precisely because they have other qualities that hide the darker aspects of their nature. While Junge’s memories of Hitler may be disturbing, they point to the banality of evil. Evil is not something that presents a monstrous face. Usually it hides itself, disguised by an unremarkable or even likeable outer personality. To look for obvious signs of evil is to overlook the crimes committed under our very noses.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

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© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.