A former secretary of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels has died at the age of 106.
Brunhilde Pomsel lived most of her life in relative obscurity until a German newspaper published an interview with her in 2011, prompting a flurry of interest in one of the last surviving people who had access to the Nazi leadership’s inner circle.
Her death was confirmed on Sunday to The Associated Press by Christian Kroenes, a director and producer of the film “A German Life.”
Last year during an interview with The Times to promote the film, Pomsel described Goebbels as alternately “nobly elegant” and a “ranting dwarf”.
“He was really well kept, had great suits, best cloth. Always had a light tan. Well-groomed hands, he probably had a manicure done every day. But no matter how elegant and well-fitting his suits were, he limped.”
In the documentary, Pomsel talks about her three years working for the man responsible for spreading Adolf Hitler’s ideology in newspapers and across the airwaves.
She described Goebbels as a vain man, whose hate-filled public speeches were difficult to reconcile with what she said was his considerable charm when not in the spotlight.
“What she recounted in the film is a warning to the current and future generations,” Kroenes said.
He says she died at her Munich home on Friday.
Pomsel also claimed she and other ordinary Germans working within the Nazi government knew nothing about the Holocaust and were helpless to stop it.
Despite taking part in the falsification of statistics used by Goebbels in order to stir hatred for Jews, Pomsel insisted her conscience was clear.
Goebbels murdered his six children after Hitler committed suicide in 1945, then he and his wife took their own lives.