Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary

Traudl Junge describes on camera for the first time her experience working as one of Adolf Hitler’s private secretaries from 1942 until his suicide in 1945. After keeping quiet for nearly 60 years, Frau Junge tells the riveting story of working alongside Hitler after the final collapse of the Nazi regime. Frau Junge is one of only a handful of witnesses to Hitler’s last days in his fortified bunker as the Third Reich was collapsing above them. In his final hours, he dictated his final will and testament to her. Frau Junge also worked with Hitler at Wolf’s Lair (his field headquarters in East Prussia), at his Bavarian residence at Berchtesgaden and on the Führer’s special train. In Spring 2001, due to the efforts of Melissa Müller, André Heller met Traudl Junge and was able to persuade her that it would be fascinating as well as historically important to make a record of her unique experiences… and of her present attitudes to that time, after years of contemplation and self-analysis.

Together with documentary filmmaker Othmar Schmiderer, Heller has condensed 10 hours of material into a 90-minute film that renounces all form of stylistic embellishment and instead relies entirely on the compelling force of this woman and her stunning tale. We learn that her experiences left her with a vehement hatred for the Nazi regime and ideology, though – and this is perhaps the most painful aspect of her very personal story – she still seems unable to forgive the young girl she once was for the naiveté and ignorance that led her to admire Hitler. Traudl Junge died from cancer on February 11, 2002 in Munich just hours after Blind Spot had its World Premiere at the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival and just days after the publication of her memoirs, In the Final Hours. She was 81 years old.