Until the Final Hour

"Until the Final Hour" is a memoir of the last days of Hitler's government, written by Traudl Junge.

ynopsis

This memoir deals with the years (1942-1945) that Traudl Junge spent with Adolf Hitler as his personal secretary. When he first hired her, by chance as it turns out, she was 22 years old and was sought out because a secretary needed to be replaced.

During Traudl Junge's time with Hitler, she claims that she was blind to the genocidal activities that were conducted around her because she was so raptured by Hitler's conviction that Germany would come out of World War II victorious.

She also describes in great detail some of the luxuries that she and other secretaries took advantage of while working for Hitler. For instance, she was treated to terrific tea-parties and dinner parties with Hitler, Eva Braun, the other secretaries (all women), and the military chiefs that Hitler worked with. She had times of great fun at these social events.

Traudl Humps married Hans Hermann Junge, one of Hitler's "orderlies". Although they were in love, they were hesitant to marry so soon because they had not known each other for very long. Hitler, however, goaded her into marrying Junge, and it was done in June of 1943.

As the years passed, Hitler's health deteriorated, the war became less and less likely to favor Germany's victory, and Hans Junge died in combat at the front lines. Junge was devastated, and Hitler was regretful, and she struggled through those times.

They traveled a great deal, going from East Prussia Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) to the Berghof to Munich to the Reichskanzlei (Reich Chancellery) and back, all by way of train. But once the Red Army was coming in hard from the east after Stalingrad fell, the Wolfsschanze had to be abandoned.

Hitler had the Reichskanzlei bunkered heavily to protect from the air raids, and the eventual, inevitable capture of the city and their position in the Reichskanzlei.

They were all aware of their impending doom, so Heinrich Himmler provided everyone with cyanide capsules. Hitler stated outright that he would not relinquish himself to the Russians and would shoot himself in the mouth before turning over control to the Russians. The mood in the bunker in the final days was one primarily of depression and hopelessness experienced by those present. The six children of Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda were poisoned with cyanide (to Junge's horror) and their bodies were found, in their beds, by the Russians a few days later. Goebbels and his wife either committed suicide or had the SS guards shoot them (stories differ on this point).

All the same, Hitler was dubious that the cyanide capsules would be powerful enough to kill him, so before he attempted his suicide, he tested a capsule on his beloved dog Blondi. The capsule killed Blondi almost instantly. Hitler killed himself with a gunshot wound to the right temple, while simultaneously biting into a cyanide capsule. Eva Braun, his bride of less than 24 hours, used cyanide alone.

Eventually, Junge and others still in the bunker were led out, and as she and another secretary wanted to avoid the Russians, they decided to flee. Junge was eventually captured and gang raped by soldiers of the Soviet Army, but was held only briefly when she was in the custody of the Americans, and was never charged with any crime.