Traudl Junge Quotes (7 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“We should listen to the voice of conscience. It does not take nearly as much courage as one might think to admit to our mistakes and learn from them. Human beings are in this world to learn and to change themselves in learning.”

Traudl Junge book Until the Final Hour

Until the Final Hour : Hitler's Last Secretary (2004) edited by Melissa Müller, Foreword, p. 3.

“Of course, the terrible things I heard from the Nuremberg Trials, about the six million Jews and the people from other races who were killed, were facts that shocked me deeply. But I wasn't able to see the connection with my own past.”

Traudl Junge

On her emotions on learning she was the same age as a famous martyr of the White Rose anti-Nazi activist group, in Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin (2002) [Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary]
Context: Of course, the terrible things I heard from the Nuremberg Trials, about the six million Jews and the people from other races who were killed, were facts that shocked me deeply. But I wasn't able to see the connection with my own past. I was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't known about those things. I wasn't aware of the extent. But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out.

“Human beings are in this world to learn and to change themselves in learning.”

Traudl Junge book Until the Final Hour

Until the Final Hour : Hitler's Last Secretary (2004) edited by Melissa Müller, Foreword, p. 3.
Context: We should listen to the voice of conscience. It does not take nearly as much courage as one might think to admit to our mistakes and learn from them. Human beings are in this world to learn and to change themselves in learning.

“And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out.”

Traudl Junge

On her emotions on learning she was the same age as a famous martyr of the White Rose anti-Nazi activist group, in Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin (2002) [Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary]
Context: Of course, the terrible things I heard from the Nuremberg Trials, about the six million Jews and the people from other races who were killed, were facts that shocked me deeply. But I wasn't able to see the connection with my own past. I was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't known about those things. I wasn't aware of the extent. But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out.

“Now that I've let go of my story, I can let go of my life.”

Traudl Junge

As quoted in her obituary in The Guardian (14 February 2002) http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/feb/14/guardianobituaries.humanities.

“I admit, I was fascinated by Adolf Hitler. He was a pleasant boss and a fatherly friend. I deliberately ignored all the warning voices inside me and enjoyed the time by his side almost until the bitter end. It wasn't what he said, but the way he said things and how he did things.”

Traudl Junge

Quoted in In Hitler's Bunker: A Boy Soldier's Eyewitness Account of the Fuhrer's Last Days (2005) by Armin D. Lehmann and Tim Carroll, p. 91, and in The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America (2009) by Jim Marrs, p. 342.