Until The Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary by Traudl Junge (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Traudl Junge
Release Date: May 9th 2005
Publisher: Arcade
Pages: 250
Rating: 5 stars
Buy on: Amazon

In 1942 Germany, Traudl Junge was a young woman with dreams of becoming a ballerina when she was offered the chance of a lifetime. At the age of 22, she became private secretary to Adolf Hitler, and served him for two and a half years, right up to the bitter end. Her memoir, written not long after the war but set aside until recently, offers a unique and chilling glimpse of the human face of this man known to posterity as a monster.

Review: 

Being a ww2 history reader and enthusiast I came across this book in the library. The 2004 movie downfall was based on this unique memoir.

This memoir was written by Traudl Junge, Hitlers last secretary. She was in the service of Hitler from 1942 to 1945 and she experienced all kinds of things – from days of happiness and triumph to days of panic and despair to the final hours of the third reich and the final moments of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.

The first draft of the book was composed in 1947 – barely two years after the end of WW2. It is written in that way that the author doesn't even judge, doesn't even comment on the events she witnessed. She just tells us the story, what happened and why it happened. In my opinion for this , for writing this way, is that after all this propaganda and after all the things she witnessed she wasnt fully aware of what exactly happened. Like she could not believe it – thus was not able to fully judge it , like she did in later years with interviews on documentaries.

The most interesting part of the story is the final month in the bunker. Where everything was falling apart, how everyone left Berlin, the state Hitler was in and how this powerful leader now lay in bed weak and alone, all of his followers already abandoned him and tried to negotiate with the enemy. Even his most faithfull men. How he seemed to not know whats going on and how he stopped having military meetings in contrast two years prior that he held military meeting with his commaders and all important people that could last hours with no end. It is interesting to see that Junge and the rest of the people in the bunker actually believed Hitler when he said that there will be one more army that will beat the enemy and that Germania will rise again – till the very last minute everyone waited for this army but nothing happened.

Some people condemn this memoir by stating that Traudl made Hitler appear human and almost feeling sympathetic about him – what most of us forget is that Hitler was a human being and although he was probably one of the most cruel leaders the history ever knew he had a sensitive side. In the book Traudl says that he was a fatherly figure that everyone admired and felt safe around. He was kind and always happy to give advice – he was even overly excited when people decided to get married. Even the movie received mixed reviews when it came to the acting of Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler – he made him too human for some , he made the audience feel sympathetic towards him and thats what I felt. I felt sorry for him, I felt sorry for the people around him.

Hitlers last secretary for him was an amazing read, I understood a lot of things about Hitler himself and how he acted than I did from all the other books I have read about the Third Reich. I recommend that to everyone out there interested in WW2.

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Wladyslaw Szpilman
Release Date: January 2003
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 224
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

Written immediately after the end of World War II, this morally complex Holocaust memoir is notable for its exact depiction of the grim details of life in Warsaw under the Nazi occupation.

Review:

The pianist is an amazingly well written book by a Jew survivor of WW2. Szpilman starts telling us about his life a few months before the German Invasion in Poland in 1939 and he cuts quick to the chase. Unlike, any other autobiographies based on this particular era we can see how everything started and how situations progressed for the jews and not only. The reader gets the chance to actually read how the newspapers wrote articles about the ghetto and the laws the Germans put out for everyone to follow...laws against the Jews and how absurd all these seemed then. No one believed a word from what was said until the Nazis started killing people in the street for no reason.

We read all these through the eyes of a jewish man who did everything he could do to protect his family, a man who witnessed atrocities of every kind happen to elderly and kids.How the Germans picked out people and executed them in front of everyone ,but also within this dark period we see people who were not that bad. Like a Nazi soldier or lieutenant who helped Szpilman and hide him and gave him food. I felt his hunger when he was looking for food and i felt his anguish as he drank water with bugs in it. The Pianist is a book that gives an insight of how it feels to be the hunted one and why wars like that should be avoided at any cost.

This book does not accuse anyone of anything it only shows that wars happen just because a few people decided on it and not a country as a whole. This book is all about forgiveness and the willingness of one to survive even under the worst conditions.

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (book review by Eleni)

Author: John Boyne
Release Date: September 12th 2006
Publisher: Fickling Books
Pages: 224
Rating: 3 stars
Buy on: Barnes and Noble

Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

REVIEW:

This is another book that I read during my experiment with World War 2 Literature and I have to say that I am little dissapointed. I made the mistake and watched the movie first before reading this book and usually the term ''the book is always better than the movie'' is true although it does not apply in this situation. The movie itself was not great but I expected the book to be for that reason only.

The first thing that I noticed was the writing of course. It was very good but no great but you get in the story pretty quickly. The author did a great job telling the story of a nine year old boy in Nazi Germany, son of an SS Officer , a boy who only wanted to explore everything, even the darkest corners of his home ,a boy sourounded by the world;s darkest time and humanities lowest point and be totally oblivious to what exactly was happening around him. 

When he moved with his family to Poland, a few kilometers from Auschwitz he could see the chimneys of the most notorious death camp and yet he simply could not comprehend what this was...for him it was a farm with people that were wearing pajamas all day and the only thing that he wanted to do was find new friends in this new ''neighborhood'' and play with them. Until he meets one of the boys in that ;;farm;;.

A story nicely told with a tint of sadness and a friendship evolving in the two different worlds with just a wired fence to separate them, a sad ending and message so well passed, this is a book that should stand along with other novels about the holocaust with the exception of a few mistakes by the author.

How can a boy growing up in Nazi Germany does not what Heil Hitler means and how can he possibly believe that this is a form of saying hello? How can the author refer to the English name of Auschwitz (out-with) when this book is supposed to be taking place in Germany - Poland and the main characters speak German? Also there are some plot holes in the story that there are not hard to pass but anyone can notice them. Due to those little mistakes the book loses some of its just thus the 3 stars.

Night by Ellie Wiesel (book review by Eleni)

Author: Ellie Wiesel
Release Date: January 1st 1958
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Series: Night #1
Pages: 120
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family...the death of his innocence...and the death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary Of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

Review: 

While doing an experiment on reading books of WWII Death Camp survivor's accounts and memoirs I came across this little book and to be honest, this is the most memorable in comparison to the rest.

Like every autobiographical book, it starts with a little background on the authors life at the time and fast enough it progresses to the main events of the book - at this point the story turns into Nightmare.  Young Ellie was taken to Auschwitz - Birkenau in train vagons that were for animals - he and his family were treated like animals. Once in the death camp he is being separeted from his family and stays with his father and thats because an inmate warned them by telling them to lie about their ages.

From that point on we see the everyday life in Auschwitz - the nightmares those people had to go through, the starvation and the treatment they were receiving.The most important of all in this book is how a person changes - how war can change a human being from good to bad, from ethical to unethical. 

At some point in the book we actually read how Ellie wished his father was dead so he wouldn't bear his burden, how he was disgusted at himself a second later for thinking of it and how he realised that he was changed so much within those few months he was in the camp, but anyone would think that way, especially when you try to survive, when life becomes a struggle about your life and when you are willing to do anything to survive, sacrifice everything just to get alive from this nightmare.I felt so sad after reading this paragraph, so guilty for a reason I cannot comprehend.

The reason I gave this book 4 stars is because of the way the book is written, although I know that is is an abridged version of the book in comparison to the original one which is only available in Yiddish (the full version). I think the publisher went too far with cutting out shocking scenes from the book that it severed a lot the content and especially for those who wanted to read more and wanted more insight of Auschwitz. 

It;s a great account of the Holocaust that everyone should read.