Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary [Hardcover]

Traudl Junge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2004

This hardcover book was a bestseller in Germany. It opens an extraordinary window on a period of history and a personality that continue to fascinate and appall.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like her infamous employer, author Junge struggled with unfulfilled artistic dreams: she traveled to Berlin in 1942 to pursue a career as a dancer and ended up taking dictation for Adolf Hitler. "There were very few days when I didn’t see Hitler, talk to him, work with him or share meals with him," she remembers. Junge’s account, undoubtedly a primer on the so-called "banality of evil," is a detailed, efficient and humorless memoir of the three years she spent as Hitler’s secretary. Her tale—full of trivial tidbits and, often interchangeably, chilling observations—draws a picture of a man at once astonishingly uninspired, quixotic and devoted to his cause. It also documents how the Fuhrer served as a father figure to Junge, whose own parents were divorced. She reveals that her post-war disdain for Hitler resembled that of an abandoned child: she hated him after his death, she says, "for his failures." This moral equivocation may seem disturbing in hindsight, but the irony of Junge’s proximity to Hitler was that she was all but shielded from the heinous realities of the war. The most compelling part of this memoir comes near the end when, upon escaping Berlin after the Allied advance in 1945, Junge makes her way from village to village, encountering the remnants of battles. This picture of a fugitive literally running away from herself suggests why Junge, unable to fully accept the nature of her complicity with the Reich, took 30 years to write her story; it also proves far more interesting than learning what Hitler ate for breakfast. 15 photos.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing; 1 edition (April 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559707283
• ISBN-13: 978-1559707282
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #434,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( H ) > Hitler, Adolf

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you're new to Hitler, this is good, February 29, 2004

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary (Hardcover)

For people who haven't read much about Hitler, this will be an interesting book. Traudl Junge was one of his secretaries from 1942 until his death three years later. She never knew him as well as Schroeder, Wolf or Gerda Christian, his other secretaries, and this is because she arrived so late on the scene. Hitler had deteriorated physically and mentally by 1942, so she was never privy to the full range of his charisma; she saw him in the period of his marked decline.

For those who think Hitler behaved as "movie Hitlers" act, then you'll be shocked to see that in private, he was a charming, fatherly fellow, at least to his inner circle. Hitler's dark, maniacal side was reserved for Himmler, Bormann and others. Junge grew attached to Hitler and enjoyed his company, even the interminable nightly monologues.

This entire book was previously published in 1989 and was called "Voices from the Bunker." Junge died in 2003 and this has been rushed out because of her recent demise. If you're well-versed in Hitler, there is nothing new here, Junge was interviewed exhaustively for years before her death. I was able to meet her, in Munich, twenty years ago, and she was a reserved, rather withdrawn woman, oppressed with guilt because she had served a mass murderer. I think anyone with an interest in Hitler will enjoy the book, but don't expect any new or revealing material.

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "banality of evil" personified, January 13, 2005

By 

mwreview "mwreview" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary (Hardcover)

For any reader interested in Adolf Hitler as a person, not just as the ranting and raving dictator, Traudl Junge's account is the best resource available. Junge (nee Humps) was one of Hitler's private secretaries from the tenth anniversary of Hitler's coming to power to the dramatic fall of the Nazi regime just two and one half years later. During much of this time, Junge's duties were primarily social. Junge accompanied Hitler for meals and relaxation almost daily. She observed him in a way very few people did and was one of a minute number of Hitler's companions who survived the war to tell her story. She wrote her memoirs in 1947 and they were later published in Voices From the Bunker. I have read that book about four times and this edition once. Her account is as fascinating now as it was the first time I read it. Voices From the Bunker is one of my all-time favorite books.

If you already have Voices From the Bunker and are wondering if this book is worth owning, I would say it is only if you are interested in Junge beyond her experiences with Hitler. This book includes more background information on her pre-Hitler life (I had not read before that her father had taken part in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch) and a 30-page chapter written by Melissa Mueller in 2001 that follows Junge's post-war life chronologically. It would not be until the revisionist 1960s when people took an interest in her story. Otherwise, the bulk of the work is the same 1947 account in Voices. I've compared sections between the two books and, although they are not the same verbatim with a few minor details added or omitted, the account is basically the same. I like the way Voices is divided up better, with more chapters separating the story (i.e. The July Bomb Plot). It is more useful for looking up information than Until the Final Hour which is mostly one long chapter. Voices also includes accounts of Hitler's aides-de-camp Otto Guensche and pilot Hans Baur which this book does not offer. Until the Final Hour does have very interesting end notes with side tidbits and brief biographical information on many of the people Junge mentions.

Junge died February 10, 2002, soon after the first German publication of her memoirs. Her memories were controversial in her homeland because her experiences with Hitler were pleasant. She knew him as a polite host and gentle father figure who showed compassion and human emotions (i.e. when he offered condolences to her after her husband died at the front). Only in brief snippets does she hint at the harsher side of the dictator. Hitler tries to hide his emotional explosions in meetings with his military officers. Frau von Schirach (wife of the head of the Hitler Youth) was no longer invited to be Hitler's guest after she voiced concern to him about trains full of deported Jews headed for Amsterdam (p. 88). Junge would finally become angry with Hitler when he gave up on the war and was accusatory to the end (Junge typed up his last demands and will). She, of course, kept such feelings of disappointment to herself. Her viewpoint is, admittedly, from an isolated world with one set of beliefs and a "puppet master" who controlled the day-to-day lives and thoughts of those around him. She describes Hitler's demeanor and routine at the Wolf's Lair (Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia), at the Berghof (his mountain retreat), and finally in the bunker as Berlin was being surrounded. She offers a unique perspective on many aspects of the dictator's life: his dietary habits, the attention he gave to his dog Blondi, his outlook on the war, his after-dinner small talk with such intimates as Eva Braun and important visitors like Albert Speer, Josef Goebbels, etc. Her account of the final days in the bunker with the Russian army drawing near is very moving. You almost feel like you were there.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An eye opener about Hitler's "other" side, April 17, 2006

By 

Jerry Wilt "JBW857" (Katy, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary (Paperback)

I was suitably impressed by Junge's book about her life with Hitler during the war. I had read many books about Hitler and knew quite well about his rants and rages. This book showed a completely different side of Hitler.

Junge states that most of her time spent with Hitler was in the company of himself and the other secretaries. As a result, she indicated that he came across as a fatherly-type human; or a wise old uncle, so to speak. She talked about how boring life could be when there was no work and how she came to enjoy the nightly monologues by Hitler.

I was surprised to read how much guilt she felt during the post-war years for being a secretary to Hitler. However, I felt that this was due to today's morality looking back on yesterday's history.

Nevertheless, if you have read many of the typical war books about Hitler, you will be quite surprised to read this behind the scenes look at a different side of the man.

The book was good; a pleasant read; but not an absolute page turner. I did enjoy the book a great deal.