Traudl Junge
| Traudl Junge | |
|---|---|
Junge in 1945
|
|
| Born |
Gertraud Humps 16 March 1920 Munich, Bavaria, Germany |
| Died | 10 February 2002 (aged 81) Munich, Bavaria, Germany |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Secretary, sub-editor, science reporter |
| Employer | Adolf Hitler |
| Known for | Adolf Hitler's personal secretary during the Second World War |
| Spouse(s) | Hans Junge (killed in combat in 1944) |
| Children | none |
| Parent(s) | Max Humps and Hildegard Humps (née Zottmann) |
| Relatives | Sister; Inge Humps |
Gertraud "Traudl" Junge (née Humps; 16 March 1920 – 10 February 2002) worked as Adolf Hitler's last private secretary from December 1942 to April 1945. After typing out Hitler's will, she remained in the Berlin Führerbunker until his death. Following her arrest and imprisonment in June 1945, both the Soviet and the American militaries interrogated her. Later, in post-war West Germany, she worked as a secretary. In her old age she decided to publish her memoirs, claiming ignorance of the Nazi atrocities during the war, but blaming herself for missing opportunities to investigate reports about them. Her story has formed a part of several dramatizations, in particular the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang).
Gertraud "Traudl" Humps was born in Munich, the daughter of a master brewer and lieutenant in the Reserve Army, Max Humps and his wife Hildegard (née Zottmann). She had a sister, Inge, born in 1923. She once expressed her desire to become a ballerina as a teenager.
Traudl Junge began working for Hitler in December 1942. She was the youngest of his private secretaries.
"I was 22 and I didn't know anything about politics; it didn't interest me", Junge said decades later, also saying that she felt great guilt for "...liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived."
She said, "I admit, I was fascinated by Adolf Hitler. He was a pleasant boss and a fatherly friend. I deliberately ignored all the warning voices inside me and enjoyed the time by his side, almost until the bitter end. It wasn't what he said, but the way he said things and how he did things."
At Hitler's encouragement, in June 1943, Junge married Waffen-SS officer Hans Hermann Junge (1914–1944), who died in combat in France in August 1944. She worked at Hitler's side in Berlin, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, at Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, and lastly back in Berlin in the Führerbunker.
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