Traudl Junge, Working For Evil, Part Two

During her interviews, Traudl Junge was asked about how much Hitler and other Nazi leaders talked about Jews. She said the subject was really not discussed, at least not around her or the other secretaries, but it's important to remember a couple of things here. First, neither Traudl Junge nor the other secretaries were involved in Hitler's meetings with Nazi leaders, where the subject most certainly would have been discussed. Second, the Nazis talked in "code," if you will; that is, they used euphemisms about their plans or ongoing operations to murder German and other European Jews, and indeed other people too. Terms like "resettlement" and "final solution" were used in place of "shipping Jews off to be killed" or "extermination." They KNEW what they were doing was an abomination, otherwise, they wouldn't have tried to hide it. Traudl also mentioned how Hitler would tell subordinates to just follow his orders about whatever the subject, that he assumed all responsibility, as if, Traudl noted, "one person can assume the conscience of another." After the war, and really up to recent times, apologists for Hitler have noted that no written order, signed by Hitler, was ever found among the many tons of captured Nazi records ordering the extermination of Europe's Jews. Hitler was a psychopath, but that didn't make him unaware of his criminality. Somewhere deep inside that disturbed mind was the reality of wrongdoing on an incomprehensible scale.

Traudl did cite one telling incident, which took place in 1943 at Hitler's villa, "the Berghof," above the town of Berchtesgaden. She admits that she only heard about it from others who were present, including her husband, who was one of Hitler's personal aides. The Schirachs had been invited to the Berghof, at Henriette von Schirach's request, to see and dine with Hitler. The husband, Baldur, had been head of the Hitler Youth in the 1930s and then the Gauleiter (Nazi Party district leader) of Vienna, and if you've seen any of the documentaries on the Nazi Hitler Youth, you've undoubtedly seen Baldur von Schirach in the films or still photos from that time. By the way, Schirach was under lots of American influence from both sides of his family, as his mother was an American and his paternal grandfather served in the Union army during the American Civil War, and Baldur grew up speaking both English and German. At the time of the dinner with Hitler, Henriette von Schirach had recently been in Amsterdam, where she had witnessed the brutal round up of Dutch Jewish women, who were then packed into railway cars and sent to the "east," which was another Nazi euphemism for "sending Jews to their death," as the extermination camps, designed to kill Jews and others as quickly as possible, were located primarily in Poland. "Auschwitz," the most infamous of all, was located there, and others were too. Mrs. Schirach told Hitler the terrible things she had witnessed in Amsterdam, adding that people there felt these Jews would never be heard from again. She apparently was under the impression that Hitler was unaware of such things. The conversation at the dinner table stopped, Hitler momentarily went silent, then he told Mrs. Schirach not to get involved in matters that she didn't understand, adding that she was "too sentimental." Hitler abruptly arose from the table, left the room and did not return, nor did the Schirachs ever return to Hitler's company, as he never invited them back *

Traudl Junge also talked and wrote extensively about the plot to kill Hitler in July 1944, when a bomb was carried into a temporary conference room by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg inside his briefcase. She and the other secretaries had been out swimming in one of the nearby lakes and they returned to their rooms, located near to where Hitler was holding a major military conference. An explosion shook their building, but at first they thought a deer may have stepped on a landmine. They heard the commotion outside and were told that a bomb had exploded in the military meeting. Since initially they did not know if Hitler had been killed, they fretted about what would happen to them without Hitler. She mentioned how conditioned they had all been to Hitler's thoughts on everything and the idea that he might have been killed left them badly shaken. One of Hitler's aides finally told them Hitler had not been seriously injured and that they could even visit him, which they did. Traudl mentioned how funny he looked, as his hair was still standing on end from the blast and his trouser legs were in tatters. The more ominous thing, however, was that he took his survival as a sign he was  destined to fulfill his "mission," and she noted that she had often thought before this incident, that one day Hitler would say, "Alright, I can't win the war, so I'll make peace," but after he survived the bomb plot, she said he seemed more determined than ever to win or take everyone and everything down with him.

For more on the failed bomb plot against Hitler, see my article, "Heroes Against Hitler/Stauffenberg":

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/11/german-military-leadersheroes-against.html 

Next, the final part and the end in Berlin, but Traudl Junge finds herself.

* At the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, Baldur von Schirach was convicted of "crimes against humanity," primarily for transporting thousands of Viennese Jews "to the east," and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He served the entire sentence and was released in 1966  He "claimed" he didn't know about the extermination camps, and that he thought Jews were being sent to live in ghettos in eastern Europe, which was criminal enough. It "may" have been an act of "denial," rather than of actually "not knowing" (there is a difference), but I must admit, I've never read all that extensively about von Schirach to give a firm opinion, but it seems rather difficult to believe he didn't at least hear the rumors that circulated about the mass killings, just as his wife saw the mistreatment and heard opinions offered in Amsterdam. Of course, even if he did firmly know about the atrocities, it is unlikely he could have done anything, because once such a criminal regime is allowed into power, it is very difficult to remove it. The key is to keep such people out of power and marginalized at the fringes of the political system, as there will always be extremists, but when they come to be accepted as just politicians and anything like mainstream, this is the beginning of accepting them into governing positions. Von Schirach denounced Hitler as a mass murderer during his trial, and after his release from prison he did speak against Hitler and Nazism, but that's scant consolation to those whose loved ones suffered and died.

 

More in Part Three, the final part, and the end in Berlin ...

 

Photo is from the paperback edition of "Bis zur letzten Stunde" (Until the Last Hour) by Traudl Junge, with cooperation from Melissa Müller, published in paperback in 2003 in German (there have been English language editions also), although there have been various printings since the original paperback. This is the 8th German paperback printing from 2011 from List Taschenbuch.

WORD HISTORY:

Team-This word goes back to Indo European "deuk," which meant "pull" and by extension "lead" (for example, a leader pulls people in his/her direction on issues). This gave its Old Germanic offspring "taugjanan," with the same meaning (it is also the ancient ancestor of "tow," as in "pull something," and "tug"). This then produced Germanic "taumaz," meaning "something that pulls," which came to be associated with animals that pulled carts/wagons, or with the reins used to equip animals for such. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "team," but pronounced in two distinct syllables, "te-am." which meant "animals harnessed together to pull a wagon or cart," and this later became "teme/tem," before the modern version. Later, the notion of animals working together to pull a wagon brought the extended meaning, "people working together toward a common objective," which also came to be applied to players of sporting events. The verb form developed from the noun in the 1500s, although it is sparsely used in American English, and then often as "team up with." Dutch, West Frisian and German all borrowed "team" directly from English, with the meaning "group working together and sports team." The other Germanic languages have: German has "Zaum" (the "Z" is pronounced "ts"), which means "bridle gear for animals," Low German Saxon and Dutch have "Toom," with that same meaning; West Frisian has "team" (also = bridle), Danish and Norwegian have "tømme" (rein), Icelandic "taumur" (=bridle/rein), Swedish has "töm" (rein).