I have always found myself drawn to history. My interest ranges from more recent history all the way back to ancient histories of Egypt, Greece, and beyond. One of my favorite genres to read is historical fiction, usually I find myself with more questions at the end of a historical fiction book than I had prior to starting. Some stories really just stand out to me more than others. When that happens to me, I go searching for either books, documentaries, or movies about the actual event, or the actual person I have just finished reading about.  

I find myself frequently visiting the WWII era. My journey started like most, learning in school of Anne Frank, and although I was young when the movie Schlinder’s List, I remember watching it. So much from that time period is hard to fathom, that I believe, that is what keeps bringing me back to it.  Whether it be through books, movies, or documentaries if something that I have not read or seen comes to my attention, I usually dive right in.  

I found that happening a lot in the past year. I feel like when the big box office shines light on this era, it brings attention back to a pivotal point in our history.  With big office movies like Nuremberg and Truth & Treason hitting the screens last fall and available for streaming or DVD this past winter, I have spent the good part of this year in that era specifically on one story.  

The story that stuck with me the most this past year has been Truth & Treason. 

Truth & Treason

The movie Truth & Treason follows the story of young LDS member Helmuth Hubener, who at the age of sixteen took up his stance against the Nazi government the only way he could, and became the youngest resistance fighter tried and executed by the Nazi government. When Helmuth listens to banned London BBC reports on a black-market radio brought home from France by his brother, after one of his friends and fellow church members is sent to a concentration camp because of Jewish decent, general discontentment of the war, violence, and the amount of censorship by the government happening around him, Helmuth used the only weapon that he had.  His words.  He felt driven to get the truth out to his fellow Hamburg residents of the war and what was really going on in Germany. He began writing anonymous anti-Nazi pamphlet’s, and recruited two of his fellow teenage LDS church members and another work colleague to distribute them across Hamburg Germany.  Gestapo officers were shocked after investigations to be arresting a young teenager; they were certain it was an older individual, possibly a professor.  Ultimately Helmuth and his friends are tried in Berlin in the highest court in Germany.  The other teenage boys receive prison sentences, but Helmuth pays the ultimate price by being sentenced to death.  

I had seen the previews for this movie for months and I highly anticipated it’s release, and although I wasn’t able to make it to the movie theater to see it, as soon as this became available to watch at home, it became my movie night pick. This movie took 20 years to be completed, and I am so glad they were able to finish the project.  If not, I don’t believe I would have ever learned of Helmuth.

This film is incredibly thought provoking. Helmuth’s courage, loyalty, commitment to his faith, morals, and beliefs are incredibly inspiring. It is difficult to choose which scene had the most lasting impact on me, one stands out the most to me. It happened in the courtroom during trial. When one of the judges says to Helmuth ” The Reich doesn’t fear your little papers” Helmuth responds with ” Then why are we here?”  Helmuth never faltered. I couldn’t imagine being in his position, and displaying that amount of strength and courage. After watching the film, that is also available in an extended version, I couldn’t get this movie out of my mind. I was so shocked that I had never heard of this young resistance fighter. I wanted to read and learn all that I could about Helmuth, and the group of teenagers that tried to take on the Nazi Government.  I was surprised to find that there are many books written about Helmuth, as well as the other teenage individuals that made up the teenage resistance group.

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The First book that I read about Helmuth was, The boy who dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. This is the first book that I have read from this author. I am always excited to meet new authors. You can find this book in our YS section. Although this is a book that is geared toward late middle school to younger high school audiences, as an adult I really enjoyed this book. She is an award winning author on the topic of this era and the Hitler Youth.

This historical fiction story gripped me from one of the first sentences.

 “It’s a Tuesday….The executioner only works on Tuesday’s”. 

This story is told from Helmuth’s perspective on the day of his execution.  It follows, Helmuth, throughout his day along with memory flashbacks of his childhood and the events that led to Tuesday October 27, 1942.  Susan Campbell Bartoletti, did extensive research on, Helmuth, using historical documents, prison records, as well as interviewing one of Helmuth’s brothers. She includes some of those documents at the end of the book. It was incredibly interesting to see a copy of the real documents. There is also a complete timeline of the Third Reich included.

I thought this was a very well thought out story, and I feel it is historically accurate, it explains how life in Germany was after WWI, throughout the rise of the Nazi government, through the war, and until the fall of 1942.

When Truth was Treason: The Story of the Helmuth Hubener Group by Blair R. Holmes and Alan F. Keele

The Next book I read was a biography about one of the other members of Helmuth’s Group, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe.  When Truth was Treason by Blair R. Holmes and Alan F. Keele is a first-hand account translation of Karl-Heinz’s life.  

Much like in the previous book I read, this book takes us from when Karl-Heinz was a young boy, documents the events that took place in Hamburg, Germany prior to WWII, through the rise of the Nazi government, and all the way until Karl-Heinz returns home after the war ends and immigration to the United States.  

Karl-Heinz was the oldest member in the group, he turned 18 just the month prior before he was arrested by the Gestapo. To the government he was the adult, and this book shows how at first, under that way of thinking, there was an attempt to put all the responsibility of the group’s activities on Karl-Heinz. This book gives a detailed account of Karl-Heinz’s life experiences growing up in everyday life in Hamburg, interrogation by the Gestapo’s, life in prison in Germany, being a prisoner of war in Russia, and his long journey to freedom and recovery after being released. Although, Karl-Heinz’s story in this book is only 141 pages, there is a lot of information in those pages.  This book also includes over 200 pages of English translated copies of historical documents, and actual translated copies of the leaflet’s produced by Helmuth, it also includes detailed copies of Gestapo officer reports, court documents, letters written on behalf of the boys, even a letter from a gestapo officer asking for clemency for Helmuth.   

I feel like this is just one of those stories that will continue to leave a lasting impact on me. Even in writing this blog I am interested in finding any more books on Helmuth and his friends, and any of the other resistance fighters of that time.

If you are interested in learning more of WWII or the Holocaust our library has large collection in our Warschau Collection, that includes archives and documents from people that immigrated to Sheboygan during that time in history.