The German Movie Festival is in full swing. My first German movie was Goodbye Lenin and now I got to see another one: Blindspot.

Blindspot is where Hitler’s secretary finally speaks out (after fifty years of silence) on the last few days of Hitler’s regime.

Blindspot is really a long interview with Traudl Junge (Hitler’s Secretary). As some critic said, “the real movie happens in the audience’s heads as they imagine her tale”. Traudl Junge is an excellent narrator whose gripping narration just captures your imagination.

Traudl Junge lived in a blindspot. She did not know of the jewish massacres till the Neuremberg trials. Even when living so close to Hitler, she never heard the word “jew” mentioned in the bunker or concentration camps and what purposes they served. As she speaks, you can totally relate to her side of the story and see how much it must have troubled her 50 years of existence afterwards! She didnt forgive herself, as she knew she could have found out by some means about what was happening, but didnt bother to ( The guilt increased after she learned later about the execution of Sophie Scholl who was almost the same age as Traudl when she was executed ).

Traudl has mixed feelings about Hitler - of paternal love and hate. In the film, she was yet to come to terms with it. At the end of the movie it was written that the day before she died, she had told the movie producers that “I am beginning to forgive myself”.

God knows, how many such countless people still suffer from their guilt. I suspect, Germany as a whole is still suffering from guilt of the holocaust. And, time will not heal the pain but merely lead to memory loss. Like charity, forgiveness begins at home.