This is a fascinating interview with Traudi Junge, who worked as Hitler's secretary as a young woman. That's all it is - an interview - you can't really call it a documentary. It's just her talking in closeup.
There are some remarkable moments in this interview: First, Trudi's description of Hitler as a person, gentle, soft-spoken, even paternal, a man who adored his dog Blondchen, watched his diet but had stomach problems, and for whom human beings meant nothing. In his mind, it was the ideal of the Superman that he was striving for.
As far as political and military situations, Junge claims not to have known much. She was in a sense shielded from the outside world as she and the other secretaries worked at first in Berlin, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, at Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, and lastly back in Berlin in the Führerbunker. They often switched off having lunch and tea with him - Hitler apparently wearied of dealing with war conversation with his officers.
Her description of the last days is amazing - the bombs going off around them, a wedding taking place in the bunker, and everyone getting cyanide capsules. The secretaries asked for them because, as Trudi said, what would the world be without the National Socialism? The picture Hitler painted was bleak; it would be horrible.
Being out in the world, Trudi realized that Hitler was 100 percent wrong, and as she learned more about the goings-on during the war, she began to feel guilty that she had not done more investigation to find out what was really going on, and guilt that she had liked such a monster.
I have only one statement about that. If she didn't know he was a monster originally, when he tested the cyanide on his beloved dog, he certainly revealed himself. She was moved to tears talking about the Goebbels children, who were going to be poisoned. For everyone, suicide seemed the only way out. He had no respect for any life.
Traudi, and a lot of Germans, had a "blind spot" - the title of this documentary - as to what was going on. I know for myself, at Traudi's age, one tends to not go into things as deeply as one should and to be oblivious to certain obvious matters. And as one ages, like Traudi, you being to remember those matters, your own behavior, and feel guilty. So what she felt to me was entirely normal.
However, if you lived near Jews and saw them taken away, where did you think they'd gone? Many Germans hid their heads in the sand. The banality of evil.
A truly excellent interview, but despite the claims, it wasn't the first time Traudi spoke publicly. But it was the first I'd seen, and I found it compelling and excellent viewing.
There are some remarkable moments in this interview: First, Trudi's description of Hitler as a person, gentle, soft-spoken, even paternal, a man who adored his dog Blondchen, watched his diet but had stomach problems, and for whom human beings meant nothing. In his mind, it was the ideal of the Superman that he was striving for.
As far as political and military situations, Junge claims not to have known much. She was in a sense shielded from the outside world as she and the other secretaries worked at first in Berlin, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, at Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, and lastly back in Berlin in the Führerbunker. They often switched off having lunch and tea with him - Hitler apparently wearied of dealing with war conversation with his officers.
Her description of the last days is amazing - the bombs going off around them, a wedding taking place in the bunker, and everyone getting cyanide capsules. The secretaries asked for them because, as Trudi said, what would the world be without the National Socialism? The picture Hitler painted was bleak; it would be horrible.
Being out in the world, Trudi realized that Hitler was 100 percent wrong, and as she learned more about the goings-on during the war, she began to feel guilty that she had not done more investigation to find out what was really going on, and guilt that she had liked such a monster.
I have only one statement about that. If she didn't know he was a monster originally, when he tested the cyanide on his beloved dog, he certainly revealed himself. She was moved to tears talking about the Goebbels children, who were going to be poisoned. For everyone, suicide seemed the only way out. He had no respect for any life.
Traudi, and a lot of Germans, had a "blind spot" - the title of this documentary - as to what was going on. I know for myself, at Traudi's age, one tends to not go into things as deeply as one should and to be oblivious to certain obvious matters. And as one ages, like Traudi, you being to remember those matters, your own behavior, and feel guilty. So what she felt to me was entirely normal.
However, if you lived near Jews and saw them taken away, where did you think they'd gone? Many Germans hid their heads in the sand. The banality of evil.
A truly excellent interview, but despite the claims, it wasn't the first time Traudi spoke publicly. But it was the first I'd seen, and I found it compelling and excellent viewing.