I have this week viewed the documentary, Blindspot: 'Hitler's Secretary', and found it riveting. What a powerful story.
We all have our preconceptions of what Hitler must have been like, but as you sit and watch and listen to this old lady Traudl Junge, talking about her years as Hitler's Private secretary, you begin to catch a different glimpse of the man.
It was Traudl Junge to whom Hitler dictated his last will and testament. It was she who saw Hitler the man in his 'ordinary' moments.
In recounting how she first met him, she relates that while she had expected to meet the image that one saw in the public broadcasts, she was surprised to meet a courteous 'old' man. Hitler was a little idiosyncratic but friendly and polite.
Because Hitler did not enjoy eating in the barracks with other soldiers who 'talked shop', it was arranged for two secretaries at a time to take their lunch and evening meals with him.
The most powerful parts of the documentary in my opinion, come at the end, as Frau Junge talks about how she 'hated' Hitler for abandoning those left behind in the bunker. He had left them to either suicide or face the terrible future that he had always prophesied.
She then goes on to recount the process by which she began to come to know and understand the real facts about Hitler's regime, and the awful moment when it suddenly occurred to her that her hitherto 'logical' belief that she had been too young to recognise the evil of the Third Reich, was inexcusable. Others her age had seen clearly and acted in defiance.
The story is about a woman's journey of forgiving her 'inner child' for it's ignorance.
Frau Junge's story reminded me yet once again, of how 'taken in' we can be by just 'one aspect' of a person's character. A friend once said to me: 'People are like diamonds - they have many many facets; but our knowledge of them is limited to just a few. When suddenly we see facets that we had never seen before, we are either pleasantly surprised or utterly shocked.'
There is an old adage that one should not judge a book by it's cover, and in our daily lives we need to remind ourselves of this.
Our opinions of people are based on 'snapshots' of them in certain situations. Some of those situations are natural, whilst others are contrived. By 'contrived', I mean that sometimes people are careful to 'craft' an image for themselves so as, in some measure or other, to deceive us.
We are always suspicious of suspicious people, and those who don't quite fit 'our mold', but we are always open to those who by one means or another, demonstrate to us that they are 'kindred spirits'. It is often those whom we believe are completely trustworthy, that are in fact the least trustworthy.
Through Frau Junge's story, we can see that sometimes, those who appear to be the nicest of people, are in fact monsters, and that those who claim to be acting 'for our benefit', are doing us the greatest harm and putting us in the greatest danger.
Those who read my column know that I am totally opposed to political correctness. If you go watch this movie, you might begin to understand why I am so opposed. So many of those wonderful humanitarians out there who 'allegedly' wear their hearts on their sleeves; hearts which 'bleed' for the common man, believe themselves to be (as did Hitler), an agent of providence, destined for greatness; to lead the 'common man' into the light of a glorious history.
Unfortunately, they, like Hitler and his kin, are deluded, and are leading the 'common man' down a path of destruction.
Do yourself a favour and go see this film about Hitler's Secretary. I'm sure you will come away from it challenged to the core about how you perceive the world around you.
Traudl Junge died in February 2002
R.P. BenDedek
(www.kingscalendar.com)
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
