Traudl Junge

About the Author

Traudl Junge was born in 1920 in Munich, Germany, and became one of history's most intimate witnesses to the inner workings of the Nazi regime as Adolf Hitler's personal secretary from 1942 until the end of World War II. Recruited at the age of 22, she typed Hitler's correspondence, took dictation during critical meetings, and observed the daily life of the Führer bunker, all while remaining largely unaware of the full extent of the Holocaust's horrors until after the war. After Germany's defeat, Junge lived a quiet life, working various jobs and raising a family, before confronting her past in her later years. Her candid memoir, Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary, co-authored with Melissa Müller and published posthumously in 2002 following her death in 2002, offers a uniquely personal perspective on the final days of the Third Reich, blending remorse, reflection, and historical insight into the human side of one of the 20th century's darkest chapters.