If someone had told me that I would enjoy watching a documentary that was basically a very long interview conducted in German (a language I don't speak), I would have been skeptic. Alas, I would also have been wrong.
"Blind Spot" is an interview with an old woman, Traudl Junge, who a long time ago was one of Hitler's secretaries. Trauld worked with him from 1942 to1945, and was the person to whom Hitler dictated his will before committing suicide. She was part of his inner circle, and as such recounts to the directors of this film (André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer) many events that help the spectator to understand at least a little how Hitler was in private, and how he reacted in different circumstances.
I was specially stricken by the fact that Trauld didn't realise what was happening in Germany while she worked for Hitler. Of course, she and the other secretaries that worked for Hitler didn't type anything that had to do with political or military matters, but all the same, it is incredible that she didn't get any accurate information at all about the outside world while she was working for him. When she started her new job, Trauld believed that she would be at the center of all information, but instead she entered a blind spot. Only afterwards would she learn that the man she liked, the same man who was nice towards his dog Blondie and polite with her, was a killer of millions.
Traudl Junge was a young 22-year-old woman when she became "Hitler's secretary", but as she recognized later, "youth is not an excuse for ignorance". She didn't notice, or she didn't pay attention, and for that she was remorseful. It took Trauld almost her whole life to come to terms with what she had been. Only shortly before dying of lung cancer was she able to tell to Heller and Schmiderer "I'm starting to forgive myself.
All in all, I highly recommend this filmed interview. It doesn't have good framing, the edition is not more than average and the sounds isn't overly good. Despite that, "Blind spot" is a very good film on an interesting subject, and it is likely to be something that you will appreciate watching, if nothing else because it provides a different perspective on one of the world's greatest criminals.
Belen Alcat
The filmed testimony of Traudl Junge on being Hitler's Secretary
I was expecting more of a traditional documentary when I watched "Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin" ("Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary"). I had made the decision to watch the theatrical film "Der Untergang" ("Downfall") before watching this documentary and I was expecting not only to have footage of Traudl Junge talking about her experiences throughout her career as Hitler's secretary (rather than on the last ten days of the Third Reich that is the focus of Oliver Hirschbiegel's film), but to see photographs of Junge from that period along with news footage and visits today to the sites she is talking about. But what we have instead are almost exclusively static headshots of Junge talking, looking slightly off camera. There are a few shots of her watching what she has said on a television set, sometimes adding to what she has already talked about, and a few times we hear a voice, presumably director André Heller, asking questions, but mostly we have Junge sharing her memories.
I find this basic approach to be spellbinding as Junge talks about not only about how she got her job (a timely phone call helps the nervous young woman get the job), but what happened the day German officers tried to assassinate Hitler and what it was like in those last days in the bunker below Berlin. The extent to which you find her revelations to be insightful will depend entirely on how much you already known about Hitler and the Third Reich. I was struck by how surviving the assassination attempt was taken by Hitler as divine providence and a sure sign the Nazis would win the war. It was Junge who took down Hitler's last will and testament and looked forward to understanding why her country had lost the war, only to be disappointed as the Fuhrer recycled the same tired rants one last time. Throughout this 87-minute documentary you are constantly reminded how real these recollections are because of the little details (Hitler mumbled his final words to Frau Junge so that she never knew what it was he said to her). The great strength of "Im toten Winkel" is that this is eyewitness testimony from somebody who was there and who was not burdened with trying to themselves from being a war criminal.
The key moment for me is when Junge talks about feeling an intense personal hatred for Hitler because he killed himself and left everybody else behind trapped in that Bunker. For Junge being abandoned was the Fuhrer's great sin, or, at least, was the first thing that could see as being wrong. But it underscores how important Hitler was to Nazi Germany and Junge is certainly representative of the psychosis that afflicted the citizens of the Third Reich. Junge's key revelation is privileged by the documentary as well, since comments end the main part of documentary. The end section that follows consists of title cards explaining what happened to Junge after that point (she was never a member of the Nazi party, which played a key role in her treatment), and what changed for her in post-war Germany as she found out the world was not the way Hitler said that it was.
One thing that struck me that this documentary and "Der Untergang" have in common is how each has its own way of enhancing the horror of Frau Goebbels murdering her own children. In the film it was that one of the children resisted taking the "medicine" that would make them unconscious so the cyanide capsules could be administered. In "Blind Spot" it is the plea of Liesl, Eva Braun's maid, begging to take the children and try to get through, and that sick woman refusing to allow her children to live in a Germany without National Socialism. Even after all these years, the horror of those final days continues to grow.
Is "Im toten Winkel" an attempt at apologia by Traudl Junge? Overall, based on what we see in the documentary, I would not say that is its primary purpose. Indeed, she says that she realizes that ignorance is no excuse, and before she died she admitted that she was starting to forgive herself. She talks about the burden she felt liking Hitler when he did such terrible things, but in her stories she offers implicit explanations more than explicit excuses (the title "Blind Spot" is clearly Heller's take on Junge's testimony). This is her final testament and what is important is that it was recorded on film before Frau Junge died of cancer in Munich in February of 2002.
Interesting, but eclipsed by the 2005 German film "Downfall"
This DVD (with not a single extra: No documentary about Hitler/the Nazis or anything else) is interesting, but with it you get two things: very detailed information of dialogue concerning Hitler as well as interesting asides on the Downfall of Nazism's last days. Of the latter, our interviewee, Hitler's secretary, offers such odd fare as this: "Eva Braun once said to the Fuhrer, 'You know there's a statue up there [outside, above Hitler's bunker in Berlin] and if you win the war, I'd like you to buy it for me.' And then he [Hitler] said: 'But I don't know who it belongs to. It's state property. I can't just buy it and put it in your private garden.' Then she said: 'But if you manage to triumph over the Russians you could make an exception just this once.' And it was really bizarre, you see, because conversations like that actually did take place, and then afterwards we would go back to discussing the best way to commit suicide." More important details also are offered, but most of what are offered therein can be seen in another film as well. So, you just might as well be better off watching the new German film entitled "Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich" instead of this c-span-like interview on tape. Mind you, what Hitler's former secretary has to say is often very interesting, but---let me give you a sample first: "All of a sudden he [Hitler] opened the door of the conference room, walked into the anteroom, to his study and sent for us---I mean the women who were still there and he said: 'All is lost. You must leave Berlin at once.' His face was like a mask of stone. In fact, it already looked as though he were wearing a death mask. We stood there, completely stunned, and then Eva Braun walked up to him, took both his hands in hers and said: 'But you must know I'll stay with you. I shall never leave you.' And then he leaned foward and for the first time that anyone had ever seen he kissed her on the lips." Interesting yes, but you can see it played out completely in the new film mentioned above. The "Downfall" film, in fact, relies heavily on Frau Junge's recollections so you could just as well watch the film and skip this interview DVD. Or, rather, borrow this interview DVD from your local library or rent it before seeing/buying "Downfall" (when it becomes available--it's still in some theaters as of april 2005). "Downfall" is the film to see, in other words---Don't even consider this interview DVD without intending to see "Downfall" too, at least. One thing this interview DVD (with absolutely no special features or extras) does have over the film I've mentioned way too often already is Frau Junge's use of the term "Fuhrer" to refer to Hitler at times. For instance: "...Otto Gunsche came up the stairs from the Fuhrer's bunker..."; "...suddenly there I was, little Traudl Humps, sitting opposite the Fuhrer."; Of Hanna Reitsch, the aviator: "I never saw a woman greet the Fuhrer with such obsessive devotion..." Admittedly, she does call Hitler a criminal too, as well as admitting having experienced guilt for having liked him, but it's ambiguous. Once she heard that Hitler committed suicide she recalls: "I felt such hatred for Hitler because he had abandoned us, a very personal hatred." Previously Hitler dictated his personal testament to her, in which she quotes him as saying: "The struggle was necessary in order to prevent a worst fate and save the world [from Bolshevism]." "The German people were not ready for their mission. So they must perish." Such murderous disregard for millions she seemingly puts behind her personal berayal, but that doesn't stop her from continuing to refer to Hitler as 'the leader'; ie., "Fuhrer" on more than several occassions within 80+ minutes of speaking. Rather odd, I'd say; just that---and that's the only thing I think this interview offers that bests "Downfall." Cheers!
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