Secretary to Evil: Joseph Goebbels' assistant, 105, reveals her life as the Nazi's typist

[kradman]

Interesting piece Joseph Goebbels' assistant reveals her life as the Nazi

[BOB COLEMAN]

A very interesting read. Thank you for posting this story of an obscure figure who was in the center of everything that happened at the end.

[UK Cousin]

Read about this today. Very interesting.

[big ned]

I too read it when first published, and thought of posting it here. But when I read this paragraph containing the familiar line so often trotted out by many of that generation to the question that is always asked of them, I decided not to:

"Despite being at the centre of the Nazi regime and a trusted assistant of the propaganda chief, Goebbels, Pomsel claims she was unaware of the Holocaust - even though one of her closest school friends died in Auschwitz.
"Goebbels was a big pig," she said. "I've personally done nothing evil, but I blame myself for being, at that time too uninterested in politics".
"I was grown up enough to recognise how the guilty criminals lied. That was very, very stupid of me."

I know she's an old lady, very old at 105, but her partial answer and attempt at justification to that question that's always asked is in my opinion at best, disingenuous.
"I've personally done nothing evil" she says..., maybe not. But you cannot tell me a woman in her position, working within and under the remit of the Propaganda Ministry, and apparently for it's boss no less, knew nothing of the genocide.

Sure, perhaps she was one of many girls who may have been nearer the typing pool than Goebbels' actual personal secretary, but for her to say she was not aware of the Holocaust is in my opinion an untruth, and is perpetuated for some who may read her denial and choose to believe it still. That is wrong.

She is nearing the end now, so I think it's fair she be allowed to live out what time she has left unmolested. But she knows the truth of what happened now as she did then, and that is the heavy burden she has had to carry through her long life. Not easy.

Absit invidia, Ned.

[Gunny Hartmann]

I too read it when first published, and thought of posting it here. But when I read this paragraph containing the familiar line so often trotted out by many of that generation to the question that is always asked of them, I decided not to:

"Despite being at the centre of the Nazi regime and a trusted assistant of the propaganda chief, Goebbels, Pomsel claims she was unaware of the Holocaust - even though one of her closest school friends died in Auschwitz.
"Goebbels was a big pig," she said. "I've personally done nothing evil, but I blame myself for being, at that time too uninterested in politics".
"I was grown up enough to recognise how the guilty criminals lied. That was very, very stupid of me."

I know she's an old lady, very old at 105, but her partial answer and attempt at justification to that question that's always asked is in my opinion at best, disingenuous.
"I've personally done nothing evil" she says..., maybe not. But you cannot tell me a woman in her position, working within and under the remit of the Propaganda Ministry, and apparently for it's boss no less, knew nothing of the genocide.

Sure, perhaps she was one of many girls who may have been nearer the typing pool than Goebbels' actual personal secretary, but for her to say she was not aware of the Holocaust is in my opinion an untruth, and is perpetuated for some who may read her denial and choose to believe it still. That is wrong.

She is nearing the end now, so I think it's fair she be allowed to live out what time she has left unmolested. But she knows the truth of what happened now as she did then, and that is the heavy burden she has had to carry through her long life. Not easy.

Absit invidia, Ned.

In total agreement Ned!...

[BOB COLEMAN]

Ned-
I felt the same way when I read the section you quoted. The guilt of a generation who knew or suspected something. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do in a totalitarian regime.

[The Devil's Bank]

She said: "I've personally done nothing evil, but I blame myself for being, at that time too uninterested in politics".

Hitlers Secretary Traudl Junge said exactly the same..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3I0pm14cRU

You couldn't make these people up..