Until the Final Hour by Traudl Junge - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review: Until the Final Hour Introduction Books are the greatest treasure of information. Be it is an information on a man, class, nation, society or time; books form the most efficient and most productive manifestations to learn about myriad facts and facets of life. As regards to the books pertaining to history, they are more valuable as it records the events of the past and present before the future generations. Now, if such books are written by any great personality then it attains importance of a different paradigm. Not only does the autobiographies of great personalities associated with the great events of history hold importance , but also the person who remains associated with these great personalities make a place for themselves on the mind of the readers through their recorded experience. At the same time they aware the readers about myriad facet of that personality which has so far remained unveiled. “Until the Final Hour” by Traudl Junge is an enriching book illuminating the dark chambers and days of one of the most talked about and controversial leaders of the world, Adolf Hitler. Junge joined the regime as a personal secretary of Hitler and served him for three years until his death. Within this limited scope and span of her life with Hitler, she was fortunate enough to witness the fall of the great phenomenon in the world politics and history. The book “Until the Final Hour” is a record of her close inspection into the life of the great leader and introspection into the most complex and critical mind of all times. Until The Final Hour: A Review The book “Until the Final Hour” was published on May 9th of 2005, a little more than three years after the death of Junge on 10th February in 2002. The publication house rightly understood and utilized the need of the time. And without delaying much, published the memoirs of a lady who witnessed the fall of an era and that of the great tyrant whom the world knows by the name of Hitler. Obviously there are lots of contentions and controversies related with the personal and public image and life of Hitler. Under such circumstances if a lady who has remained the personal secretary of the great man until his last hour renders a recorded experience of her life and time with Hitler, the book ought to gain popularity. It is needless to mention in this regard that the book for many obvious reason gained immense popularity. Traudl Junge was born in the city of Munich in the year 1920. Her parents got separated ironically for the Nazi movement itself. And Junge grew up without much contact with her father. Traudl grew up with apolitical views largely ignorant about world politics. She was compelled to take up job after leaving school and desired to move to Berlin to follow the footsteps of her sister and accomplish her dream of becoming a ballerina dancer. But destiny had different plans for her. She was unable to appear for the exam of dance and was selected as the secretary to one of the greatest personalities of the world amid a tough competition from ten other contestants. She received name and fame but evidently not as a dancer but as the last serving personal secretary of Adolf Hitler and was exhaustively interviewed all through her life by scholars, authors, researchers and media persons since the death of her boss and until her last hour. At the age of only twenty two in the year 1942, Traudl started to serve at Reich Chancellery at a secretarial post which completely stopped her way to Berlin forever. She started her career with Hitler when the political career of the man was slowly being eclipsed by defeats and disgraces. Traudl witnessed many crest and fall of the final years of Hitler and stood patiently serving him amid all the ups and downs witnessing his last predicament to noting down his will and the final testament. Traudl finally emerges with an efficient, detailed and humourless memoir which became very alarming because she was one of the few who survived the war to tell the consequences and occurrences of Hitler’s final days and witnessed the fall of the Nazi regime more closely than any other personality did in the history. However, her perception about Hitler was more casual and was from the perception of a lady who was gazing upon the events from the maturity that of a twenty two year old. The tyrant, psychopathic and maniac side of Hitler failed to fall in her sensibilities and she saw Hitler as an excellent host extremely fatherly in his attitude and almost with a perception of a young girl claimed emphatically that though Hitler was rude to the generals and officers but never displayed such malice to any women around him. The immense positive review about Hitler’s personality made the book controversial and not much popular in her own land. Initial part of the book revolves round private image of Hitler rather than his political image and evaluation of his activities. Hitler’s teetotaller state, vegetarianism and dislike towards fagging were highlighted largely. Traudl made detailed descriptions pertaining to her midnight tea, endless dinner and lunch with Hitler focusing more on the items of his diet rather than political decisions and movement. As the war ended and Junge survived it, she travelled extensively after the death of Hitler. The final moment of Hitler and Evan Braun finds detailing and gains importance amid many general tit bits about the great hero. Time passed and Traudl evidently gathered maturity which compelled her to weave two hundred and sixty one pages of this memoir into the theme of remorse and guilt. She herself admitted her ignorance towards the Nazi atrocities and claimed the failure in the aggression as the defeat of Hitler. Hitler’s marriage with Evan Braun also found a special place in Junge’s book where she gives the detail of their marriage, Evan’s apparel and make-up and the way she bid farewell to all the staffs and servants. With the passage of time Traudl also admits in the book that the refuge of immaturity or tender age was a mere means of escapade from the responsibility and she emphatically placed Goebbel’s children as the most tragic character of the book. Personal Perception and Conclusion The book, “Until the Final Hour” is compact with lucid presentation and impeccable editing. The book though focuses on the private and social life of Hitler rather than his political career but it is a valuable document to understand the dark abbeys of the Nazi regime from the private chamber of the man who played an important role in changing the entire course of world history and politics. The book is important for knowing Hitler closely and forms an evident attempt to hide and shelter the evil activities of the leader under a cover of a soft and normal livelihood. If anyone wants to understand and know Hitler as a next door man, the book is an obvious document in this regard. However, the fact that Hitler cannot be accepted as a common man somewhere might diminish the importance of the content of the book but as a precise memoir of Hitler’s last personal secretary and the most popular amid all his personal assistants, the book will continue exercising its immense enchantment and appeal for the universal inquisitive nature of mankind if not for anything else. The book, “Until the Final Hour” truest to the essence of its name, stands unique and tall recording the final moments of the great fall of a great man like his personal assistant at least when the authoress of the book stood loyal and erect by the side of her master till his final predicament and even after his death. Metaphorically and even at a literal plane, the book also records the events of Traudl until her final hour and was unveiled only after her death. Bibliography Junge, Traudl. Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary. Phoenix, 2005. Read More