The Boy Who Dared - History

History

This story about Helmuth Hubener chronicles his years in school and his first job after graduation. Helmuth took an apprenticeship in the Bieberhaus, which is at the Social Welfare Department at City Hall. Although originally proud of the Fatherland and an enthusiastic participant in the Jungvolk, the Hitler Youth group, Helmuth became disillusioned as Nazi power and policies spread in Germany. Helmuth and a group of friends including Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, Rudolf Wobbe, and Gerhard Duwer, monitored banned radio broadcasts, in which the Allied Powers gave an accurate portrayal of the war in Europe rather than the version told thru Axis propaganda. The friends printed pamphlets that were critical of Nazi Germany and distributed them to the public. Their activities were discovered by a co-worker of Helmuth's at the Bieberhaus and they were turned into the Gestapo, where Helmuth was interrogated, beaten, and arrested for what was considered treason. Helmuth's friends received lighter sentences for their crimes. A brief trial for "show" was held at the People's Court or Volksgerichtshof, and at age seventeen, Helmuth Hubener was executed at Plotzensee Prison in Berlin, becoming the youngest person in history executed for opposing the Third Reich.