Traudl Junge is dead. She died in February 2002. In the 1940s she used to work as a secretary for one of the most cruel and most mysterious men of history: Adolf Hitler.
We are really lucky to be blessed with this film interview she gave a few months before her death. The filmmakers Heller and Schmiderer visited her just in time. It is inconceivable how much would be lost to us, if this important witness of history had not been interviewed.
Although 90 per cent of the time, there is nothing to see on the screen except Traudl Junge's face, the film is more thrilling than most so-called thrillers: I kept staring at the screen 90 minutes throughout. Not only because what Junge said was so unbelievable and I had never heard anything similar before but also because this woman was a genius in telling stories. She was able to remember and to talk. Old people can be wonderful storytellers.
On the one hand, the stories Junge tells, speaking of Hitler as having the appearance of a friendly elder gentleman etc, will not change history. They will not change the common view on Adolf Hitler, and, above all, they will not change anything about the fact that Hitler was a terrible criminal who killed lots of people for low reasons. But on the other hand there would be a huge hole in history if no one had told us these stories. It is okay to know and to believe that Hitler was kind to his personnel, his girlfriend and his dog. It is even necessary for understanding the whole dimension of what he did. Without these insights into Hitler's every-day life, one might think that the Holocaust was committed by some virtual monster. In fact, it was not a monster but a human being. This makes it, in my opinion, even more terrible and disturbing.
We are really lucky to be blessed with this film interview she gave a few months before her death. The filmmakers Heller and Schmiderer visited her just in time. It is inconceivable how much would be lost to us, if this important witness of history had not been interviewed.
Although 90 per cent of the time, there is nothing to see on the screen except Traudl Junge's face, the film is more thrilling than most so-called thrillers: I kept staring at the screen 90 minutes throughout. Not only because what Junge said was so unbelievable and I had never heard anything similar before but also because this woman was a genius in telling stories. She was able to remember and to talk. Old people can be wonderful storytellers.
On the one hand, the stories Junge tells, speaking of Hitler as having the appearance of a friendly elder gentleman etc, will not change history. They will not change the common view on Adolf Hitler, and, above all, they will not change anything about the fact that Hitler was a terrible criminal who killed lots of people for low reasons. But on the other hand there would be a huge hole in history if no one had told us these stories. It is okay to know and to believe that Hitler was kind to his personnel, his girlfriend and his dog. It is even necessary for understanding the whole dimension of what he did. Without these insights into Hitler's every-day life, one might think that the Holocaust was committed by some virtual monster. In fact, it was not a monster but a human being. This makes it, in my opinion, even more terrible and disturbing.