Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary
by Othmar Schmiderer, André Heller
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DVD details
Actor: Traudl JungeDirector: André Heller, Othmar Schmiderer
Brand: Blind
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-10-28
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary
DVD Review: The filmed testimony of Traudl Junge on being Hitler's Secretary
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Description of Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary
An interview with Traudl Junge, one of Adolf Hitler?s private secretaries from 1942 through the collapse of the Nazi regime, in which she tells it all. 2003 National Theatrical Release.Bestsellers in DVD
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