Traudl Junge

Gertraud “Traudl” Humps-Junge , born Gertraud Humps ( Munich , 16 of March of 1920 - Berlin , October to February of 2002 ), was one of the personal secretaries of Adolf Hitler , leader of Nazi Germany .

Biography

Early years

Gertraud “Traudl” Humps was born in Munich. His father, Max Humps, professional brewer , was lieutenant in the reserve. Max Humps was one of the first members of the Nazi Party and participated in the Putsch of Hitler on 9 of November of 1923 . In 1925 he left his wife Hildegard and his two daughters Traudl and Inge, disengaging from them ever since, and later became General ( Oberführer ) of the SS in the reserve ( SS-Allgemeine ).

Gertraud grew up in the atmosphere of the advent of the Nazi regime in his city and enrolled in the League of German Girls . Her main objective was to become a dancer, and was hired by Deutsche Tanzbühne Berlin. Traudl tried to leave his work to go to Berlin and to dedicate itself to the dance , but his boss does not accept the request to him of dismissal and it prevents him to go away to the capital. He finally got to Berlin in the spring of 1942, with the help of Albert Bormann as a “service obligation.”

In 1942 by Otto Günsche she met her future husband, Hans Hermann Junge , officer Obersturmführer SS seconded plant Begleitkommando-SS des Führers to the chancellery.

Secretary of Hitler

In December 1942 he learned, through the dancer Beate Eberbach, the sister-in-law of Albert Bormann, who had free a position of secretary in the chancery and managed to place himself among the postulants. Hitler himself selected it in Wolfsschanze (“Wolf’s Lair”), for the writing of letters and documents of domestic, administrative and personal order. The 14 of July of 1943 , after receiving the corresponding authorizations, he married with her boyfriend, Hans Hermann Junge, and in 1944 moved along with Gerda Christan, another secretary of the Fuhrer, the bunker built under the floor of the Foreign Ministry.

The 13 of August of 1944 her husband died in combat in a spotter plane in the area of Dreux , Normandy . ¹

The fall

During 1945 Junge witnessed the first line of the last days of the regime of Hitler and the degree of prostration that fell on the Führer , belonging to its inner circle and knowing personally to Eva Braun , companion sentimental of Hitler, to Magda Goebbels , Wife of Joseph Goebbels , and other female personalities. At the last moment he wrote Hitler’s political testament and once he and other inhabitants of the bunker committed suicide, he went out with Otto Günsche , Hitler’s aide- de- camp , Erich Kempka and Martin Bormann , the Führer’s personal secretary. Her intention was to escape from the Soviets , although finally it was captured by these and later surrendered to the Americans , who they released her in 1947 .

Last years

After the war, Junge worked as a journalist in different media. In 1959 she published the book Tiere mit Familienanschluss ( Animals with family life ), which shows her talent as a writer and her sense of humor. In 2001 , at the age of 81 years, he published in collaboration with Melissa Müller , the book until the last moment ( Bis zur letzten Stunde ), which tells everything about his experiences during the Nazi regime. He also granted a filmed interview ( Im Toten Winkel-Hitlers Sekretärin ) in which, although already a victim of the disease, he was very lucid and with his memories fresh in his memory .

He stated that he was against the atrocities of the Hitler regime, stating that during the exercise of his labors during Nazi Germany he never got to know about the Holocaust or other related issues and that in his presence the Jewish word was never mentioned .

He died in Berlin the following year a victim of lung cancer at 81 years of age.

In 2004 the film Der Untergang (in Spain , The Sinking ), directed by the German Oliver Hirschbiegel , was released , whose script is based, among others, in the already mentioned book of Junge and Müller. Traudl Junge also appears in this film in archive footage. ² Her role is played here by the Romanian- born German actress Alexandra Maria Lara .

References