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Nazi propaganda chief's secretary dies at 106

Story highlights
  • Pomsel wanted her life story to be a warning about dangers of right-wing extremism
  • Directors of film "A German Life" said Pomsel didn't "show any false remorse"

(CNN) Brunhilde Pomsel, the secretary to Nazi Germany's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, has died in Germany at the age of 106.

Last year, Pomsel spoke publicly for the first time about her experiences working for the Nazi regime and her three years as Goebbels' secretary. Her story was turned into the critically acclaimed film, "A German Life."

In the film, she expressed no remorse for her actions. "I wouldn't see myself as being guilty," she said. "Unless you end up blaming the entire German population for ultimately enabling that government to take control. That was all of us. Including me."

She also challenged the view that ordinary German people should have done more to prevent the crimes committed by the Nazi regime.

"The people who today say they would have done more for those poor, persecuted Jews... I really believe that they sincerely mean it. But they wouldn't have done it either. By then the whole country was under some kind of dome. We ourselves were all inside a huge concentration camp."

"I'm not the kind of person to resist," said Pomsel in the film "A German Life." "I wouldn't dare to. I'm one of the cowards."

Pomsel was born in Berlin in 1911 and worked as a shorthand writer for a Jewish businessman until 1933 when she started working for Berlin Radio and joined the Nazi Party.

She worked as Goebbels' secretary and typist from 1942 until the end of the war, when she was captured by Soviet forces. She was released in 1950 and spent the rest of her career working for the German Broadcasting Corporation ARD.

Christian Kroenes, one of the film's directors, spoke to CNN about his last meeting with Pomsel on her 106th birthday earlier this month. "She was just an old woman, very weak," he said. "But she was still very interested in international politics.

"She hoped that her life story would be a warning to present and future generations about the dangers of right-wing extremism."

The film's directors described Pomsel as "very intelligent and likeable" and praised her honesty. "She doesn't show any false remorse, which is all too often the case with witnesses of the period. Brunhilde Pomsel was always authentic and credible," they said in a written statement.

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