Until the final hour ebook

And discover the truth behind the shadow man who turned the author's childhood dreams into nightmares. The troubling talent has made the Southern California surfer wary of casual contact. But while impulsively saving a stranger from an accident, she experiences her most disturbing vision.

With only a good friend to help her, and mere traces of information to guide her, Makani must track down two mysterious women—one of them innocent, one not.

He leaves his competitors buried in the dust. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.

One of the master storytellers of this or any age. Of those days, none was more trying than the final hours for the men trapped on Wake Island, Bataan, Corregidor, Hong Kong and Singapore. Jul 13, Kelsey Hanson rated it it was ok Shelves: biographies-autobiographies-memoirs , nonfiction. I didn't think it was possible, but after reading this, I think I hate Hitler even more than before.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't start reading this book thinking that it would really change my views on the man all that much, but reading about how he was hiding in a relatively comfortable bunker safe from bombings with good food and his girlfriend besides him while all around him people were dying in concentration camps, fighting his battles and starving to death is infuriating.

Besides that, he I didn't think it was possible, but after reading this, I think I hate Hitler even more than before. Besides that, he died in a relatively painless way and seemed relatively okay with his most loyal officers committing suicide alongside him. If anything, the descriptions of Hitler as a relatively normal guy who liked dogs and charming conversation made him more frightening than ever to me.

What sort of person can feel that much emotion over his dog dying after he's wiped out most of Europe? The most heartbreaking moment in this book was the story of the Goebbel children who were basically murdered before their parents committed suicide. I realize that the Russians were bearing on them and that they had a reputation for being exceptionally brutal so maybe their parents thought they were sparing them a more painful death, but it still seems so wrong that they died so young.

As far as the author goes, I'm a little surprised at the lack of sympathy that I have for her. I don't think I quite believe her claims that she knew nothing of his genocidal plans.

I think she was very young and naive and that she was captivated by Hitler's charisma like much of Germany was at the time. I also wonder if maybe she was able to rationalize working for him because she wasn't directly involved in the killing. I am surprised at the amount of emotion this book stirred up in me.

The first part was fairly dry, but the ending provided a lot of firsthand info. After reading this book, I still cannot determine whether the main character, Tradul Jung, was naive or caught in the times.

Honestly, probably both. She provided an interesting perspective of Hitler that I've never seen before. He's written in a more fatherly ideal, with some moments of his stereotypical behaviours. View 2 comments. Isn't strange to think how much power the Nazi era still holds? I feel like every time I come into contact with a direct link to it, it burns me nearly with its strange fixations. I do wonder if I feel this way because I was born in Hamburg and spent the first decade of my life there.

Echoes of the war were certainly a part of life, even in the nineties. Gentrification was setting in all around my mother's small apartment, so that every other month a construction firm would dig up an unexploded A Isn't strange to think how much power the Nazi era still holds? Gentrification was setting in all around my mother's small apartment, so that every other month a construction firm would dig up an unexploded Allied bomb, and the whole inner city had to be evacuated.

Our whole floor was a monument to the war actually. The apartments downstairs from us were lovely gilded 18th century affairs. Ours was a plain fifties addition. My mother told me very matter of factly that it was because the top of the building had been bombed straight off before even she was born. My grandmother told me how they used elephants from the Hagenbeck Tierpark to carry big pieces of wood and steel when they were rebuilding the city.

As a child I always liked the thought of those big strange creatures helping build my bedroom. That was as much as either of them ever talked to me of it as a child. They don't begin to teach Nazi history in German school until, at eleven, you reach the fifth grade, so mostly my idea of the war was vague.

My grandmother told me lots of her childhood in s Prussia, and if wheedled, some of the funny stories about Africa in the s. There was nothing in between. Only something that had wiped out most of my grandmother's extended family. Something that carried shame with it. I learnt nearly everything important at once upon arriving in Australia.

There's no shame and regret in war when you're on the winning side. I remember finding it incredibly distasteful, even as a ten year old, of how we had to lay flower wreaths on ANZAC day, or wear poppies on Rememberance Day. Not because I didn't feel sorry that people had died never that!

To this day I don't know the German national anthem, but spent every morning of my school days in Brisbane singing the Australian one. Lots of boys in my school had Dads or Granddadswith weird fixations upon the two World Wars.

From them I heard mostly terrible pronounciation the particularly wrong "Die Waffe! Auf nach Deutschland! It was not until I reached the seventh grade that I had any serious problems. We began studying the Second World War under the supervision of our homeroom teacher, an old-ish battle-axe called Mrs H. I've never met anyone since who still had such a vivid hate for Germany. She nearly cried everytime she described all the 'brave boys' we'd lost to the terrible Nazis. She made us play games at lunchtime were some of us were the 'good' Allied Forces and the rest were 'evil' German bullets.

I don't know why I told her I was German. I could have gotten away that whole term with hiding under my half-African ancestry. But as a child I sometimes did things just to see what would happen. I was endlessly curious about human nature I think.

Mrs H. Well, the next few months were hell. I was never a star student, but my half-baked focus in class had always earned me B's and an occassional A in art until then.

Now I could do nothing right. She was also our art teacher and she graded my work so harshly that it went from being my favourite subject to my least favourite in a matter of months. All the while she was teaching us about the concentration camps, the medical experiments, the Blitzkrieg I told my Mum about it eventually. I think I tried to make a joke out of it. Something along the lines of 'look at me- I'm not exactly the Aryan posterchild! What does she think would have happened to me back in those days?

She requested a parent teacher conference the next week. I wasn't in the room when they spoke, but after that Mrs H reverted to being a normal teacher again.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at with that very long anecdote sorry! Recently I've been doing a lot of research into the Third Reich through books, documentaries and films. I think I've finally reached that point where I want to understand what happened, rather than seperate myself from it. I think what always gets to me is that the Germany of the time is still a country I recognise. I look at Traudl Junge's picture and I read her words, and I recognise her.

It actually boggles my mind. How could this regime of people, who are nothing more or less than very German people, at the same time be in the spell of someone who was committing such atrocities? These memoirs are fascinating and very well written. I didn't rate the book because I don't know how I feel about it at all. It's like touching the still-hot coals of a pack of devils.

Just because they're dead doesn't mean their negative power is completley faded yet. I felt tired and consumed while reading about Hitler's endless tea parties. I'm glad the book exists, but I think I need a break before I immerse myself in something so evil and strong again.

Aug 28, Diem rated it really liked it. What if, instead of being insanely evil 24 hours day, Hitler was mostly just a quiet vegetarian who detested cigarette smoke, loved his dog and was polite and warm to his staff? And all with a tidy early-Emo haircut? Before you pick this up, ask yourself this: Do you really want to read a book that presents a human side to Hitler? If your answer is, "Yes", then by all means read this. If your answer is, "No", then continue in your delusion that Hitler was actually the human embodiment of evil an What if, instead of being insanely evil 24 hours day, Hitler was mostly just a quiet vegetarian who detested cigarette smoke, loved his dog and was polite and warm to his staff?

If your answer is, "No", then continue in your delusion that Hitler was actually the human embodiment of evil and that nothing terrible will ever happen again because Hitler took care of that and we're good now. Your answer should be, "Yes". Banality of evil and all that. Traudl is an interesting character who clearly felt warmly toward her boss but chastises herself throughout the book for not being more aware of what was going on around her.

She pulls no punches and makes no excuses. She simply explains that she, like many, were just apathetic about politics. They accepted what they'd heard about how wonderful national socialism would be and thought it was bound to be better than what they had. Sound familiar? Sep 07, Aisling rated it it was ok Shelves: history , ww2 , nazi , 20th-c-history.

Do you really want to read a book written by a stupid person? I think I would have more respect for her if she was a raging anti Semite then this laughable self serving account. I am reminded of the part in Downfall when Hitler is making his last will and she seems terribly surprised by his anti Semitism. You could also forgive this element of the book if it was remotely interesting but its not. Reads like somebody cashing in on a connection they had rather then any real insight.

Mar 02, Rennie rated it it was ok Shelves: history , memoir , translated , ww2 , germany. The second half is significantly more interesting than the first, which mainly consists of her descriptions of the rooms and furniture in various buildings she lived and worked in for Hitler. She comes off as being very removed, frequently saying things like "He called me into his office to dictate something, I can't remember what it was.

Maybe that's what she's trying to demonstrate; how mundane and routine the goings-o The second half is significantly more interesting than the first, which mainly consists of her descriptions of the rooms and furniture in various buildings she lived and worked in for Hitler. Maybe that's what she's trying to demonstrate; how mundane and routine the goings-on were. It just kind of came off as distracting and unrelated to the narrative.

The portion of the book describing the actual final days is far more intense and meaningful, although she continues to gloss over major emotional details in favor of descriptions of decor. The movie that was somehow based on this book, Der Untergang, is an incredible film, and a better way to spend your time if you're interested in the subject, I think.

An interesting account by the youngest of Hitler's secretaries, Traudl Junge who worked for him from Dec. There was nothing thrilling in her life, it was a mundane job with Hitler as she only saw his kinder side, even urging her to marry her husband who died in in France.

It does show, however how Hitler could mesmerize people into believing he was ok when he was a monster at heart. Get print book. Arcade Publishing Amazon. Shop for Books on Google Play Browse the world's largest eBookstore and start reading today on the web, tablet, phone, or ereader. Go to Google Play Now ». In Germany, Traudl Junge was a young woman with dreams of becoming a ballerina like her sister, when she was offered the chance of a lifetime.

At the age of twenty-two she became private secretary to Adolf Hilter, and she served him for two and a half years, right up to the bitter end. Her memoir, which she wrote not long after the war when the memories were still fresh, offers a unique and chilling glimpse of the human face of this man known to posterity as a monster.

As part of the secretarial pool, Junge observed the intimate workings of Hitler's administration. She traveled back and forth with him between the Wolf's Lair in eastern Prussia and Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, and finally to the bunker in Berlin. She typed correspondence and speeches, including Hitler's public and private last will and testament. She and the other secretaries ate their meals and spent evenings with him, as well as with Eva Braun and high-ranking Nazi officials.

She was close enough to hear the bomb that was intended to assassinate Hitler in the Wolf's Lair. She heard the shot with which Hitler ended his life, and smelled the bitter almond odor of Eva Braun's cyanide pill.