Until the Final Hour
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Until the Final Hour is a memoir of the last days of Hitler's government, written by Traudl Junge.
[edit] Synopsis
This memoir deals with the years (1942-1945) that Traudl Junge spent with Adolf Hitler as his personal secretary. When he first hired her, by chance as it turns out, she was 22 years old and was sought out because a secretary needed to be replaced.
During Traudl Junge's time with Hitler, she was blind to the genocidal activities that were conducted around her because she was so raptured by Hitler's conviction that Germany will come out of World War II victorious.
She also describes in great detail some of the luxuries that she and other secretaries took advantage of while working for Hitler. For instance, she was treated to terrific tea-parties and dinner parties with Hitler, Eva Braun, the other secretaries (all women), and the military chiefs that Hitler worked with. She had times of great fun at this social events.
Traudl Gumps married Hans Junge, one of Hitler's "orderlies". Although they were in love, they were hesitant to marry so soon because they had not known each other for very long. But Hitler goaded Traudl into marrying Junge, and it was done in June of 1943.
As the years pass, Hitler's health deteriorates, the war became less and less likely to favor Germany's victory, and Hans Junge died in combat at the front lines. Traudl was devastated, and Hitler was regretful, and she struggled through those times.
They traveled a great deal, going from East Prussia (Wolf's Lair) to the Berghof to Munich to the Reich Chancellery and back, all by way of train. But once the Russians were coming in hard from the east after Stalingrad fell, the Wolf's Lair had to be abandoned, and everyone said their goodbye as they left, and they were very sad to leave such an integral part of their lives'.
Hitler had the Reich Chancellery bunkered heavily to protect from the air raids, and the eventual, inevitable capture of the city and their position in the Chancellery.
They all knew and dreaded their impending doom, so Heinrich Himmler provided everyone with cyanide capsules. Hitler stated right out that he would not relinquish himself to the Russians and would shoot himself in the mouth before turning over to the Russians. It was a very gloomy time for all those people in the bunker, and they spent quite a deal of time down there. Six children, the children of Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, were allegedly killed and crated up. It was the intention of Goebbels and his wife that the children die with honor for Germany.
All the same, Hitler was dubious that the cyanide capsules would be powerful enough to kill him, so before he attempted his suicide, he tested the pills on his beloved dog Blondi. The pill killed Blondi, and Hitler was noticably upset. Hitler killed himself with a gunshot wound to the head, and just for safe measures, he bit down on a cyanide capsule, too.
Traudl Junge heard the shot and wanted to run. Eventually, Traudl and others were led out of the bunker, and she and another secretary wanted freedom from the Russians, so they ran. Traudl was eventually captured by the Russian, but didn't spend a lot of time in prison.
