Overview
I had no idea what was going on. Or very little. No more than most people.
So you can't make me feel guilty. Brunhilde Pomsel's life spanned the
twentieth century. She struggled to make ends meet as a secretary in
Berlin during the 1930s, her many employers including a Jewish insurance
broker, the German Broadcasting Corporation and, eventually, Joseph
Goebbels.
Christopher Hampton's play is based on the testimony
she gave when she finally broke her silence to a group of Austrian
filmmakers, shortly before she died in 2016. Maggie Smith, alone on
stage, plays Brunhilde Pomsel. Christopher Hampton's play is drawn from
the testimony Pomsel gave when she finally broke her silence shortly
before she died to a group of Austrian filmmakers, and from their
documentary A German Life (Christian Kroenes, Olaf Muller, Roland
Schrotthofer and Florian Weigensamer, produced by Blackbox Film &
Media Productions).