Later Life
Following the war, Junge was not widely known outside the academic and intelligence communities. Other than appearing in two episodes (#16, "Inside the Reich" (1940–1944) and #21, "Nemesis: Germany (February – May 1945)") of the 1974 television documentary series The World at War and being interviewed for the 1975 book The Bunker by James P. O'Donnell and Uwe Bahnsen, she lived a life of relative obscurity. She worked in secretarial jobs. Junge twice resided for short times in Australia, where her younger sister lived; her application for permanent residency was denied due to her Nazi past.
Later, Junge became more public about her experiences. In 1989, Junge's manuscript about her life throughout the war was published in the book Voices from the Bunker by Pierre Galante and Eugene Silianoff (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons). In 1991, she appeared in the documentary series Hitler's Henchmen produced by German television channel ZDF. The 2002 release of her autobiography Until the Final Hour, co-written with author Melissa Müller and describing the time she worked for Hitler, brought media coverage. She was also interviewed for the 2002 documentary film Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, which drew much attention. Junge died from cancer in Munich on 10 February 2002 at the age of 81 and received global celebrity status for a few days, reportedly having said shortly before her death, "Now that I've let go of my story, I can let go of my life." Further fame came two years later, when some of Junge's experiences with Hitler were portrayed in the Academy Award-nominated film Der Untergang (Downfall). Her interviews are seen at the beginning and at the end of the film. At the end she says:
| “ | Of course the horrors, of which I heard in connection of the Nuremberg trials, the fate of the 6 million Jews, their killing and those of many others who represented different races and creeds, shocked me greatly, but at that time I could not see any connection between these things and my own past. I was only happy that I had not personally been guilty of these things and that I had not been aware of the scale of these things. However, one day I walked past a plaque that on the Franz-Joseph Straße (in Munich), on the wall in memory of Sophie Scholl. I could see that she had been born the same year as I, and that she had been executed the same year when I entered into Hitler’s service. And at that moment I really realised, that it was no excuse that I had been so young. I could perhaps have tried to find out about things. | ” |
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