Traudl Junge was one of Adolf Hitler's personal secretaries from 1942 – 1944. Before she passed away in February of 2002 multimedia artists Andre Heller and Othmar Schmiderer convinced her to let them record her thoughts on this obviously still controversial man and her relationship with him on film.

Shot in her apartment in Germany with one camera, Blind Spot – Hitler's Secretary documents Traudl's thoughts and feelings, in her own words, after remaining silent about the whole ordeal for over sixty years. The result is a powerful and conflicting film that asks just as many, if not more, questions than it actually answers.

At a young age, Traudl began working with Adolf Hitler, taking dictation for his personal letters and documents and residing along with the other personal secretaries that he kept in a reclusive bunker hidden away in the woods. Very much removed from the outside world and media, Traudl claims that she actually new very little about what Hitler was doing, only that he was driven beyond description in his beliefs and goals. She speaks in quite a bit of detail about his charisma and appeal and how she and many others believed in him and what he was doing not so much out of hatred for the Jews but out of a love for Germany and a love for Hitler.

As time went on and the war started to turn against the Nazis, Traudl began to see Hitler crack under pressure and she began to wise up a little bit in regards to just what kind of man she was working for, but still continued to serve him as best she could, right up until his last day on Earth when she took a personal dictation of his last will and testament before he and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide.

Like I said, it's an interesting story and anyone with even the slightest inkling of an interest in history or politics would do well to check this out for themselves to see what someone who knew Hitler in a personal manner has to say about one of the most evil and despicable men in history. It's actually quite eye opening. Traudl talks about him and recognizes the fact that, yes, he was an evil man, but that doesn't stop her from being frank about her feelings towards him. He was apparently very kind to her and treated her with courtesy and respect and she did feel not only admiration for him as a national leader but also as a person.

And that's where the conflict comes in.

If she was aware of his evil intentions, why did she stay? Was she in fact nothing but a Nazi sympathizer? Was she really as ignorant about his political aspirations as she claims? It seems hard to believe that she could be that close to the man who at that very time was responsible for killing millions of Jews without knowing about it. And by the time Hitler was deep enough into it to be ready to kill himself rather than be taken alive by the Allies she had to have known, so why didn't she run? Was she afraid of what he would do? Of what the Allies would do? Or was she simply loyal to him?

Like I said, it asks as many questions as it answers.

Regardless of how you feel about Traudl Junge's views on the subject, there's no denying that this is a fascinating look at a horrible time in world history from someone who was there to experience it first hand. Her stories are both interesting, disturbing, and at times, even touching but thankfully, they're never boring. Despite the fact that there is no music, stock footage, or clips of anything except for Traudl herself, this remains a powerful testament to the whole 'truth is stranger than fiction' adage.

Video:

Blind Spot is presented in it's original fullframe aspect ratio. The quality is decent enough, though it's not going to melt your eyeballs with blistering colors or amazing depth. It's quite basic. There really isn't much in the way of backgrounds or anything to the film, just Traudl sitting in her living room. There is some slight edge enhancement that is noticeable from time to time but other than that, it looks as good as it needs to.