Traudl_Junge.htm

On February 10, 2002, Traudl Junge, German secretary to Adolf Hitler, died at the age of 81. From the article:


"Traudl Junge
Gertraud Humps (Traudl Junge), the daughter of Max Humps, a master brewer, and Hildegard Humps, was born in Munich on 16th March 1920.

Her father, Max Humps, was a member of the Freikorps and held "anti-republican, nationalist and anti-Semitic opinions". He took part in the fighting against members of the Independent Socialist Party, German Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party.

Max Humps joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and along with his friend, Sepp Dietrich, took part in the Munich Putsch in November, 1923. He was not arrested for his role in the attempted coup and unable to find work moved to Turkey. His wife files for divorce and along with her daughter moved in with her parents. Melissa Müller points out: "In 1930, when Traudl begins secondary school at the Luisenlyzeum for girls, her mother applies for reduced fees because she cannot pay the full amount out of her housekeeping money - only 4.50 marks a day to feed four mouths. Traudl often has to report sick when there is a school outing because her mother can't scrape up the 2.70 marks for expenses."

At school there was discussion of the Nuremberg Laws and concepts such as the "Jewish question", "racial hygiene" and "racial disgrace" are approached as if they are facts. Traudl's biographer, Melissa Müller, has pointed out: "Traudl accepts the idea of Bolshevism as the greatest enemy of the civilized world, threatening ruin to morality and culture, as a terrifying but incontrovertible fact.

Traudl Junge and the NSDAP
Traudl welcomed the election of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933. Traudl later recalled: "In school and generally it was celebrated as a liberation, that Germany could have hope again. I felt great joy then. It was portrayed at school as a turning point in the fate of the Fatherland. There was a chance that German self-confidence could grow again.... Before, the national spirit was depressed, and it was renewed, rejuvenated, and people responded very positively." She joined the German Girls' League in 1935.
In 1936 Traudl left school. She wanted to train as a dancer but it was important to earn money as soon as possible to help her mother. She therefore goes to a commercial college to learn short-hand and typing. After finishing her course she obtains a position as a clerk at the Munich branch of Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke. She left the company after the firm's chauffeur keeps following her down to the stockroom and showing her dirty postcards. In 1939 she became assistant to the editor-in-chief of Die Rundschau, a journal for the tailoring trade.

German Girls' League
In 1938 Traudl joined the "Faith and Beauty" organization, a new unit within the German Girls' League for Aryan young women of the Reich from eighteen to twenty-one years old. Its leader, Jutta Rüdiger commented: "The task of our League is to bring young women up to pass on the National Socialist faith and philosophy of life. Girls whose bodies, souls and minds are in harmony, whose physical health and well-balanced natures are incarnations of that beauty which shows that mankind is created by the Almighty... We want to train girls who are proud to think that one day they will choose to share their lives with fighting men. We want girls who believe unreservedly in Germany and the Fuhrer, and will instil that faith into the hearts of their children. Then National Socialism and thus Germany itself will last for ever."

Traudl Junge
Traudl Junge
Traudl still wanted to be a ballerina but her dreams came to an end with the outbreak of the Second World War: "By the time I finally passed my dance exams in 1941, and triumphantly gave notice to the firm where I was working, rules about the state control of jobs and workplaces had come into effect. You couldn't just do as you liked any more, you had to do what mattered most to the state, and secretaries and shorthand-typists were needed a great deal more urgently than dancers." Traudl moved to Berlin and found work in the New Reich Chancellery.

Traudl Junge joins Adolf Hitler
In November 1942, Adolf Hitler had two main secretaries, Johanna Wolf and Christa Schroeder. In Hitler's Last Secretary (2002) Traudl explained: "Fraulein Wolf and Fraulein Schroeder, had been his secretaries and constant companions for over ten years. All the stress and strain of such an irregular life had already affected their ability to perform well, and so had their increasing age. One day Hitler wanted to dictate a document. Fraulein Wolf was unwell; Fraulein Schroeder was out at the theatre in Berlin. He was furious to find that there was no one available when he happened to need secretarial help, hauled his adjutant Bormann over the coals and told him to make sure such a thing never happened again. Younger secretaries must be recruited to take some of the burden off the shoulders of the two veterans. And so it was that at the end of November 1942 we ten girls, all of us still quite young, were summoned to the Supreme Commander."

In December 1942, Hitler selected Traudl to take a dictation test. He took a strong liking to Traudl and told Albert Bormann that he did not need to interview the other candidates. "It turned out that Hitler didn't want to try any of the other secretaries, because he thought that I had done satisfactory and was suitable. So nine girls went back to Berlin next day while I stayed in the Wolf's Lair, as this headquarters was called... From then on, except for a few weeks' holiday, there were very few days when I didn't see Hitler, talk to him, work with him or share meals with him."

Traudl admitted: "I was 22 and I didn't know anything about politics, it didn't interest me... 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." Traudl later told Gitta Sereny: "I have never understood the effect he had on all of us. Sometimes, when he went off somewhere without us, it was almost as if the air around us had become deficient... some essential element was missing... There was a vacuum."

Marriage
Traudl worked closely with Hitler's two valets, Hans Junge and Heinz Linge. "To say valet doesn't really cover it - the post was more like that of household manager, travelling companion, butler and maid-of-all-work combined. The valet on duty had to wake Hitler in the morning, that is to say knock at his bedroom door, announce the precise time, and give him the morning news. He also had to decide on the menu for the day, fix mealtimes, pass instructions on to the kitchen, and serve the Führer when he ate. He was in charge of a whole staff of orderlies who looked after Hitler's wardrobe and had to clean the rooms and run the establishment, and he made appointments with the dentist and barber and supervised the care of the dog."

Traudl Junge
Traudl Humps, Hans Junge and Johanna Wolf in 1943.
Traudl recalls: "Hitler himself adored beautiful women. But he had the very primitive view that the greatest hero deserves the most beautiful woman. He couldn't imagine that a woman might have other qualities besides her beauty, like charm or intelligence. This didn't interest him. For him it was very simple: the most beautiful woman belongs to the greatest hero."

Humps began a relationship with Hans Junge, Hitler's valet. In her autobiography, To The Last Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary (2002), she pointed out: "By now it was no secret in our close-knit circle that I was on particularly friendly terms with Hans Junge. If I excused myself from a meal it was usually when Linge was on duty, so that Hans Junge and I could take long walks in the mountains together, or go on expeditions to Berchtesgaden or Salzburg. But not only was Julius Schaub as naturally nosy as a washerwoman, he was always on the look-out for subjects of conversation to serve up to the Führer at breakfast. However, while gossip about little love affairs might be very interesting, that wasn't really what the Supreme Commander wanted."

Junge and Humps decided to get married. Humps explained that one of the reasons for their proposed wedding was to persuade Adolf Hitler to give permission for Hans Junge to fight on the front-line: "Hans Junge was a particular favourite of the Führer's, serving him devotedly and with a strong sense of duty. All the same, he was anxious to get further away from Hitler. He was one of the few people to realize that in the long run Hitler's ideas would have such an effect on you that in the end you wouldn't know what you had thought of yourself, and what was due to outside influence. Junge wanted his sense of objectivity back. He had applied several times to go to the front, which was the only way he could give up his job with Hitler. Every time his request was turned down on the grounds that he was indispensable; there were plenty of good soldiers but few trustworthy valets and adjutants."

Traudl Junge
Traudl Junge with Hans Junge in 1943.
Hitler agreed that the couple could marry: "Well, I certainly do have bad luck with my staff. First Christian marries Data and takes my best secretary away, then I finally get a really good replacement, and now Traudl Humps is leaving me too and taking my best valet with her into the bargain." Hitler then said to Humps:"But you'll be staying with me for the time being. Junge insists that he wants to go to the front, and while you're on your own you can carry on working for me."

As Junge was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS), Humps had to fill in some paperwork: "The wedding was fixed for the middle of June 1943. I rebelled only once, when I saw the mountain of forms and questionnaires I must fill in because I was going to marry an SS man. I lost my temper and told my future husband that I'd throw the whole lot in the wastepaper basket if my marriage depended on this kind of thing. Hitler laughed heartily when I read him out some of the questions on the forms. For instance, they asked, 'Is the bride positively addicted to housework?' He himself said that of course all this was nonsense, and he'd have a word with Himmler about it. Anyway, I was spared having to fight a battle on paper, and before I knew it June came and I was Frau Junge. My married bliss lasted four weeks, while we went on honeymoon to Lake Constance, and then my husband joined the army and I moved back to headquarters."

Henry Picker has claimed that Hitler planned to "dictate his memoirs to his two senior female secretaries" Johanna Wolf and Christa Schroeder. Junge commented: "The worse the situation got at the fronts, in the small circle at the evening table talks the happier the Führer would be to talk about his plans for after the war. He talked about the painting gallery and reshaping the city of Linz, to where he was planning his retirement, and mentioned in this context repeatedly that he would then surround himself only with civilians, artists and academics, and never again with uniforms, so that he could then finally dictate his memoirs. His two long-serving secretaries Wolf and Schroeder would help him in this, the younger girls would probably marry and leave him. As he would then be older and slower, the women would be able to keep up with his tempo."

Traudl Junge
Traudl Junge with her husband, Hans Junge in June 1943
Henry Picker has claimed that Hitler planned to "dictate his memoirs to his two senior female secretaries" Johanna Wolf and Christa Schroeder. Junge commented: "The worse the situation got at the fronts, in the small circle at the evening table talks the happier the Führer would be to talk about his plans for after the war. He talked about the painting gallery and reshaping the city of Linz, to where he was planning his retirement, and mentioned in this context repeatedly that he would then surround himself only with civilians, artists and academics, and never again with uniforms, so that he could then finally dictate his memoirs. His two long-serving secretaries Wolf and Schroeder would help him in this, the younger girls would probably marry and leave him. As he would then be older and slower, the women would be able to keep up with his tempo."

Death of Hans Junge
Hans Junge was killed during a low-flying aircraft attack in Dreux, Normandy on 13th August 1944. She was given the news by Hermann Fegelein (Liaison officer of the Waffen SS). He explained that Adolf Hitler could not bring himself to tell her: "The Führer has known since yesterday, but he wanted to wait for confirmation, and then he found he couldn't tell you himself. If you're in any kind of trouble come and see me, I'll always help you." Traudl Junge commented in her memoirs: "He went on talking, and as if from a great distance I heard him saving what a terrible mess, everything was, this war and the Bolshevists and absolutely everything, but one day it would all be different... Funny how I still remember that, although I was hardly listening to him."

Junge was then asked to go and see Hitler: "I was taken into the little room that had once been Fraulein Schroeder's living room. Now it was a temporary study for Hitler. How gloomy and sober the room looked now. Once Linge had closed the door behind me Hitler came towards me without a word. He took both my hands and said, 'Oh, child, I'm so sorry. Your husband was a splendid fellow.' His voice was very soft and sad. I almost felt sorrier for Hitler than for myself, because it's so difficult to express sympathy. 'You must stay with me, and don't worry, I'll always be there to help you!' Suddenly everyone wanted to help me, and I felt like running away."

On 16th January 1945, following the defeat at the Battle of the Bulge, Traudl Junge and the rest of Hitler's personal staff moved into the Führerbunker in Berlin. The situation became so desperate that on 22nd April he sent two of his secretaries, Christa Schroeder and Johanna Wolf, away in a car. Schroeder later recalled: "He received us in his room looking tired, pale and listless. "Over the last four days the situation has changed to such an extent that I find myself forced to disperse my staff. As you are the longest serving, you will go first. In an hour a car leaves for Munich."

Traudl Junge in the Führerbunker
By the end of April soldiers of the Red Army were only 300 yards away from Hitler's underground bunker. Although defeat was inevitable, Hitler insisted his troops fight to the death. Instructions were constantly being sent out giving orders for the execution of any military commanders who retreated. It was suggested that Hitler should try to escape. Hitler rejected the idea as he feared the possibility of being captured. He had heard stories of how the Soviet troops planned to parade him through the streets of Germany in a cage. To prevent this humiliation Hitler decided to commit suicide. On 28th April, 1945 Junge typed Hitler's last private and political will and testament. Hitler left all his property to the Nazi Party.

On 28th April 1945 Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun. Hitler tested out a cyanide pill on his pet Alsatian dog, Blondi. Braun agreed to commit suicide with him. She could have become rich by writing her memoirs but she preferred not to live without Hitler. Braun told Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge. "Please do try to get out. You may yet make your way through. And give Bavaria my love." Junge commented that she said this "smiling but with a sob in her voice."

Heinz Linge recalled: "After the meal Eva Hitler came to me to take her leave. Pale, having remained awake all night but careful to maintain her composure, she thanked me for 'everything you have done for the Führer'. With a sad look she begged me at the finish: 'Should you meet my sister Gretl, do not tell her how her husband, Hermann Fegelein, met his death.' I never saw Gretl Fegelein again." Linge also reported that Joseph Goebbels tried to persuade Hitler not to commit suicide. Hitler told Goebbels: "Doctor, you know my decision. There is no change! You can of course leave Berlin with your family." Goebbels replied that he would stay in Berlin and die with Hitler.

Hitler then asked to see Linge: "He stood stooped, the hank of hair, as always, across the pale forehead. He had become grey. He looked at me with tired eyes and said he would now retire. It was 1515 hours. I asked for his orders for the last time. Outwardly calm and in a quiet voice, as if he were sending me into the garden to fetch something, he said: 'Linge, I am going to shoot myself now. You know what you have to do. I have given the order for the break-out. Attach yourself to one of the groups and try to get through to the west.' To my question what we should fight for now, he answered: 'For the Coming Man'. I saluted. Hitler took two or three tired steps towards me and offered his hand. Then for the last time in his life he raised his right arm in the Hitler salute. A ghostly scene. I turned on my heel, closed the door and went to the bunker exit where the SS bodyguard was sitting around."

Junge later recalled how, on 30th April, 1945, Adolf Hitler locked himself in his room with Eva Braun: "Suddenly... there is the sound of a shot, so loud, so close, that we all fall silent. It echoes on through all the rooms." Hitler's bodyguard, Rochus Misch commented: “Everyone was waiting for the shot. We were expecting it.... Then came the shot. Heinz Linge took me to one side and we went in. I saw Hitler slumped by the table. I didn’t see any blood on his head. And I saw Eva with her knees drawn up lying next to him on the sofa – wearing a white and blue blouse, with a little collar: just a little thing.” Albert Speer commented: "Eva's love for him, her loyalty, were absolute - as she proved unmistakably at the end."

Those left in the Führerbunker were undecided what to do next. Some men committed suicide whereas others armed themselves with the intention to fight the enemy troops. Traudl Junge left the Führerbunker on 1st May, 1945. Other members of the group included Walter Hewell, Martin Bormann, Erich Kempka, Heinz Linge and Ernst-Gunther Schenck decided to try and escape. Junge later recalled: "It could be about eight-thirty in the evening. We are to be the first group leaving the bunker... we make our way through the many waiting people and go down underground passages. We clamber over half-wrecked staircases, through holes in walls and rubble, always going further up and out. At last the Wilhelmsplatz stretches ahead, shining in the moonlight. The dead horse still lies there on the paving stones, but only the remains of it now. Hungry people have come out of the U-Bahn tunnels to slice off pieces of meat... Soundlessly, we cross the square. Sporadic shots are fired, but the gunfire is stronger further away. Then we have reached the U-Bahn tunnel outside the ruins of the Kaiserhof. We climb down and work our way on in the darkness, over the wounded and the homeless, past soldiers resting, until we reach Friedrichstrasse Station. Here the tunnel ends and hell begins. We have to get through, and we succeed. The whole fighting group gets across the U-Bahn bend uninjured. But an inferno breaks out behind us. Hundreds of snipers are shooting at those who follow us."

Some of the group eventually reached an old beer cellar of a brewery now being used as a bunker. Junge later moved on and according to Ernst-Gunther Schenck, on 2nd May 1945: "A Soviet negotiator followed by a Russian officer and four men. As they came through the entrance there were two loud reports inside the room. Hewel had put a pistol to his temple and squeezed the trigger as he bit on a cyanide capsule. I went to him immediately: he was dead. I could see it at a glance. The thought struck me at once that this was how Hitler had died and Hewel had copied him, biting on a cyanide capsule and shooting himself at the same instant. I needed no second look."

Arrested in Berlin
Traudl Junge remained free until being arrested in Berlin on 9th July. After being interrogated for the next five months she was released from prison. She entered hospital in January 1946 suffering from diphtheria. After leaving hospital she was allowed to move to Munich where she worked as chief secretary of the editorial staff of the weekly illustrated magazine Quick.

In 1947 Junge wrote her account of working with Adolf Hitler: "At this period we were all looking to the future and trying - with remarkable success, incidentally - to repress and play down our past experiences. I set about writing my memoirs objectively, trying to record the outstanding events and episodes of the immediate past before details that might later be of interest faded or were forgotten entirely... I was fascinated by Adolf Hitler, thought him an agreeable employer, paternal and friendly, and deliberately ignored the warning voice inside me, although I heard it clearly enough."

Memoirs of Traudl Junge
Junge said in an interview in 1991 that it was the awareness of the activities and death of Sophie Scholl that she became aware of her feelings of guilt: "Of course the horrors, of which I heard in connection of the Nuremberg trials, the fate of the 6 million Jews, their killing and those of many others who represented different races and creeds, shocked me greatly, but at that time I could not see any connection between these things and my own past. I was only happy that I had not personally been guilty of these things and that I had not been aware of the scale of these things. However, one day I walked past a plaque that on the Franz-Joseph Straße (in Munich), on the wall in memory of Sophie Scholl. I could see that she had been born the same year as I, and that she had been executed the same year when I entered into Hitler’s service. And at that moment I really realised, that it was no excuse that I had been so young. I could perhaps have tried to find out about things."

Junge returned to her manuscript and added an introduction. "When I read my manuscript again several decades later, I was horrified by my uncritical failure to distance myself from my subject at the time, and ashamed of it. How could I have been so naive and unthinking?.... I have never kept my past a secret, but the people around me made it very easy for me to repress the thought of it after the war: they said I had been too young and inexperienced to see through my boss, a man whose honourable facade hid a criminal lust for power.... Not until the middle of the 1960s did I gradually and seriously begin to confront my past and my growing sense of guilt. Over the last thirty-five years that confrontation has become an increasingly painful process: an exhausting attempt to understand myself and my motivation at the time. I have learned to admit that in 1942, when I was twenty-two and eager for adventure, I was fascinated by Adolf Hitler, thought him an agreeable employer, paternal and friendly, and deliberately ignored the warning voice inside me, although I heard it clearly enough. I have learned to admit that I enjoyed working for him almost to the bitter end. After the revelation of his crimes, I shall always live with a sense that I must share the guilt."

Traudl Junge died of cancer in Munich, at the age of 81, on 10th February 2002. Her autobiography, To The Last Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary was published posthumously."