HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Helmuth Günther Guddat Hübener (8 January 1925 – 27 October 1942) was a German youth who was executed at age 17 by beheading for his opposition to the
Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
. He was the youngest person of the
German resistance to Nazism The German resistance to Nazism () included unarmed and armed opposition and disobedience to the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime by various movements, groups and individuals by various means, from assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler, attempts to ass ...
to be sentenced to death by the '' Sondergericht'' ("special court") People's Court (''Volksgerichtshof'') and executed.


Life

Helmuth Hübener, born in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
on 8 January 1925, came from an apolitical, religious family in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Germany. He belonged to
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
, as did his mother and grandparents. His adoptive father, Hugo, a Nazi sympathizer, gave him the name Hübener. Since early childhood, Hübener had been a member of the Boy Scouts, an organization strongly supported at the time by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but in 1935 the National Socialists banned scouting from Germany. He then joined the
Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...
, as required by the government, but quit after '' Kristallnacht'' in 1938, when the Nazis, including the Hitler Youth, destroyed Jewish businesses and homes. When one of the leaders in his local congregation undertook to ban
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
s from attending its religious services, Hübener found himself at odds with the new policy, but continued to attend services with like-minded friends as the Latter-day Saints locally debated the issue. His friend and fellow resistance fighter Rudolf "Rudi" Wobbe later reported that of the 2,000 Latter-day Saints in the Hamburg area, only seven were pro-Nazi, but five of them happened to be in his and Hübener's St. Georg
Branch A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...
(congregation), thus stirring controversy with the majority who were non- or anti-Nazis. After Hübener finished middle school in 1941, he began an apprenticeship in administration at the Hamburg Social Authority (''Sozialbehörde''). He met other apprentices there, one of whom, Gerhard Düwer, he would later recruit into his resistance movement. At a bathhouse, he met new friends, one of whom had a
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
family background and, as a result, he began listening to enemy radio broadcasts. Listening to foreign media was at the time strictly forbidden in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, being considered a form of
treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
. In the summer of that same year, Hübener discovered his older half-brother Gerhard's shortwave radio in a hallway closet. It had been purchased by Gerhard earlier that year in France. Helmuth began listening to the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
on his own, and he used what he heard to compose various anti-National Socialist texts and anti-war leaflets, of which he also made many copies. The leaflets were designed to bring to people's attention how skewed the official reports about
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
from
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
were, as well as to point out
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's,
Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
', and other leading
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
' criminal behaviour. Other themes covered by Hübener's writings were the war's futility and Germany's looming defeat. He also mentioned the mistreatment sometimes meted out in the Hitler Youth. In one of his pamphlets, for example, he wrote: In late 1941, his listening involved three friends: Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe, both of whom were fellow Latter-day Saints, and later Gerhard Düwer. Hübener had them help him distribute about 39 different pamphlets, all containing typewritten material from the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
broadcasts. They distributed them throughout Hamburg, using such methods as surreptitiously pinning them on bulletin boards, inserting them into letterboxes, and stuffing them in coat pockets.


Arrest and execution

On 5 February 1942, Hübener was arrested by the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
at his workplace, the Hamburg Social Authority in the Bieberhaus in Hamburg. While trying to translate the pamphlets into French and have them distributed among
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
, he had been noticed by co-worker and Nazi Party member Heinrich Mohn, who denounced him. On 11 August 1942, aged 17, Hübener was tried as an adult by the Special People's Court (''Volksgerichtshof'') in Berlin, which had jurisdiction over matters of treason. Hübener was sentenced to death. After the sentence was read, Hübener faced the judges and said: "Now I must die, even though I have committed no crime. So now it's my turn, but your turn will come." He hoped his confrontational tactics would focus the judges' wrath on him and spare his companions. As stated in the proclamation, Hübener was found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason and treasonous furthering of the enemy's cause. He was sentenced not only to death, but also to permanent loss of his
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
, which meant the prison guards were allowed to torture and abuse him, and he was not allowed bedding or blankets in his cold cell. It was highly unusual for the Nazis to try an underaged defendant, much less sentence him to death, but the court stated that Hübener had shown more than average intelligence for a boy his age. This, along with his general and political knowledge, and his behaviour before the court, made Hübener, in the court's eyes, a boy with a far more developed mind than was usually to be found in someone of his age. For this reason, the court stated, Hübener was to be punished as an adult. Hübener's lawyers, his mother, and the Berlin Gestapo appealed for clemency in his case, hoping to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. In their eyes, the fact that Hübener had confessed fully and shown himself to be still morally uncorrupted were points in his favour. The Reich Youth Leadership (''Reichsjugendführung'') disagreed, however, and stated that the danger posed by Hübener's activities to the German people's war effort made the death penalty necessary. On 27 October 1942, the Nazi Ministry of Justice upheld the Special People's Court verdict. Hübener was only told of the Ministry's decision at 1:05 pm on the scheduled day of execution. On 27 October, at 8:13 pm, he was beheaded by
guillotine A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
in the execution room at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. His two friends, Schnibbe and Wobbe, who had also been arrested, were given prison sentences of five and ten years respectively.


Church reaction

In 1937, the president of the LDS Church, Heber J. Grant, had visited Germany and urged the members to remain, get along, and not cause trouble. Consequently, some church members saw Hübener as a troublemaker who made things difficult for other Latter-day Saints in Germany. This recommendation did not change after '' Kristallnacht'', which occurred the year following Grant's visit, after which he evacuated all non-German Latter-day Saint missionaries. The local Latter-day Saint branch president, Arthur Zander (1907-1989), was a supporter of the Nazi Party, and had affixed a notice to the meetinghouse entrance stating "Jews not welcome". Ten days after the arrest of Hübener, on 15 February 1942, Zander claimed to have excommunicated the young man. The excommunication was not valid, as it lacked the necessary authorization of the Church's District President, Otto Berndt, who later claimed he would never have signed it. The day of his execution, Hübener wrote in a letter to a fellow branch member, "I know that God lives and He will be the Just Judge in this matter… I look forward to seeing you in a better world!" This is thought to be the only surviving letter by Hübener. In 1946, four years later and after the war, Hübener's "excommunication" was declared by the Church's First Presidency and the Church's new German mission president Max Zimmer as null and void, saying the excommunication was not carried through with the proper procedures. He was also posthumously ordained an elder, with full Church temple blessings restored in 1948 to clarify that his membership in the Church was never in doubt.


Legacy

A youth centre, school and a pathway in Hamburg are named after Hübener. The last runs between Greifswalder Straße and Kirchenweg in Sankt Georg. At the former Plötzensee Prison in Berlin, an exhibit about young Helmuth Hübener's resistance, trial, and execution was located in the former guillotine chamber that has since been changed to highlight other victims. Floral tributes are often placed in memory of Hübener and others put to death by the Nazis there. Hübener also has a ''
Stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...
'', which can be found at Sachsenstraße 42 in Hamburg-Hammerbrook. On 8 January 1985, sixty years after Hübener's birth, ceremonies in his memory were held in Hamburg by city officials. His fellow resisters, Schnibbe and Wobbe, both of whom had emigrated to the U.S. after the war, returned to Hamburg for the commemoration, where they were honoured guests and speakers.


Depiction in books, drama and film

Hübener's story has been the subject of various literary, dramatic, and cinematic works. In 1970, German author
Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...
published the book ''
Local Anaesthetic A local anesthetic (LA) is a medication that causes absence of all sense, sensation (including pain) in a specific body part without loss of consciousness, providing local anesthesia, as opposed to a general anesthetic, which eliminates all sen ...
'', about the Hübener group. In 1979 Thomas F. Rogers, a university teacher at
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
, wrote a play titled ''Huebener'', which has had several runs in various venues. Hübener's two co-accused friends, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe, attended some of the performances, albeit in different circumstances. Wobbe died of cancer in 1992; Schnibbe died in 2010. In February 2014, ''Huebener'' made its high school premiere in St. George, Utah. In 1995, the first-hand account ''When Truth Was Treason'' was published, narrated by Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and written by Blair R. Holmes, a professional historian, and Alan F. Keele, a German-language specialist. A newer edition was published in 2003 (see ). The book ''Hübener vs. Hitler'' by Richard Lloyd, includes interviews with all then-living friends and close relatives of Hübener, and utilises primary investigative documents from the Nazi era. Rudolf Gustav Wobbe (Hübener's other co-resistance fighter) wrote the book ''Before the Blood Tribunal''. Published in 1989, the book provides a personal account of his own trial before the Special People's court of Nazi Germany where he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his participation in anti-Nazi resistance. Rudi, as he was known, also describes events leading up to the trials of the three German youths and his own experience as a prisoner. This book was later republished as ''Three Against Hitler''. The 2008 juvenile novel '' The Boy Who Dared'' by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, while fictional, is based on Hübener's life. Bartoletti's earlier Newbery Honor book, '' Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow'' (2005), also covers Hübener's story. Hübener's story was documented in the 2003 documentary ''Truth & Conviction'', written and directed by Rick McFarland and Matt Whitaker. The story was also depicted in ''Resistance Movement'', an independent 2012 film. In 2020 an exhibition about Helmuth Hübener named 'You may not know him, but....' by German artist Cordula Ditz took place at Kunsthalle Hamburg.


See also

*
List of peace activists This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated Diplomacy, diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usua ...


Notes


References

* * Gedenkstätte Plötzensee (Brigitte Oleschinski, published by the ''Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand'', and also listed in the German article). *
Review of Ulrich Sander's book ''Jugendwiderstand im Krieg. Die Helmuth-Hübener-Gruppe''
* ''The Price: The True Story of a Mormon Who Defied Hitler'', by Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, with Alan F. Keele and Douglas F. Tobler. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1984. (This book was the first "rough" pp and considerably shorter version of the later expanded and revised title, ''When Truth Was Treason''). * *


External links


Alan Frank Keele papers, MSS 7726
a
L. Tom Perry Special Collections
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
. Contains research notes on Hübener. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hubener, Helmuth 1925 births 1942 deaths Executed children People excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints People from Hamburg executed at Plötzensee Prison German anti-fascists German Latter Day Saints Executed German Resistance members German resistance members People executed by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison Hitler Youth members