Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
Genre: Biography, Memoir, World War II, History

Book Review:
''Until the Final Hour: A Haunting Eyewitness Account of Hitler's Last Days''

Traudl Junge's ''Until the Final Hour'' is one of the most remarkable and chilling eyewitness accounts to emerge from the ruins of the Third Reich. As Hitler's last private secretary, Junge was at his side from 1942 until his death in the Berlin bunker, typing his correspondence, his speeches, and even his last will and testament. Her memoir offers an intimate and disturbing glimpse into the inner circle of the Nazi regime.

Junge was just 22 years old when she was appointed to the position, a young woman who had dreamed of becoming a ballerina. She was flattered by the ''opportunity of her life'' and initially saw Hitler as a kind and fatherly figure. She typed his letters, listened to his monologues, and observed the daily life of the Führer and his inner circle. Her account is remarkable for its ordinariness—the banality of evil, as Hannah Arendt famously put it.

But as the war turned against Germany, the atmosphere in the bunker grew increasingly desperate. Junge describes the building sense of doom, the paranoia, the suicides, and the final, apocalyptic days of Hitler's reign. She was there when Hitler married Eva Braun, and she was there when they took their own lives. Her account of these final hours is gripping and harrowing.

After the war, Junge was racked with guilt for having ''liked the greatest criminal ever to have lived.'' Her memoir, written in 1947 but not published until after her death, is a startling and honest account of her own complicity and blindness. It is a powerful reminder of how ordinary people can become caught up in extraordinary evil.

Critics have praised the book as a valuable addition to the literature on Hitler. Andrew Roberts wrote in the Evening Standard that ''her testimony rings absolutely true, when other politically motivated accounts of the last days of Hitler do not.'' Elena Lappin in the Daily Telegraph called it ''a very unusual and useful addition to the canon of literature that seeks to explain Hitler.''

''Until the Final Hour'' is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the final days of the Third Reich and the psychology of those who served Hitler. It is a haunting and unforgettable book.