Traudl Junge was born in Munich in 1920. From the end of 1942 until April 1945 she was Hitler's private secretary. After the war she was sent to a Russian prison camp and later returned to Germany. She died on February 10, 2002, shortly after the publication of the German edition of her book.
Melissa M�ller, a writer of the controversial and much praised documentary based on Traudl Junge's time with Hitler called Blind Spot: Hitler's Last Secretary, persuaded Junge to finally publisher her memoir in 2002, nearly sixty years after she had written it.
"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astonishingly uninspired, quixotic and devoted to his cause."--Publishers Weekly "Until the Final Hour is a remarkable historical document (and it comes with a good afterword by its editor, Melissa M�ller, which describes Junge's miraculous escape from Berlin, her time in a Russian prison camp and, most poignantly, her old age: depressed, guilt-ridden, alone). But more than this, it is another painful reminder of how it is possible for a person--or even an entire nation--to sleepwalk slowly into sin. You put the book down and your skin prickles with the knowledge that, out in the world, there will always be invisible lines to be crossed. Mistakes: how easily they are made."--Guardian "Until the Final Hour is the more imposing book for what it reveals about Junge, an ordinary German citizen, innocently (at first) caught up in extraordinary things. . . . It is all the humdrum, quotidian 'undistanced' details that make the book important. Hannah Arendt's phrase "the banality of evil" may be in danger of becoming a banality itself, but not of becoming an untruth."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
