During the war, radios were banned from keeping hope alive among Germans; the state-sponsored radios spread lies about the false victory the German soldiers were gaining on the battlefield. However, when the Sixteen-year-old Helmuth Hübener eavesdropped on his brother listening to the BBC radio, it sounded like the Germans were on the brink of being wiped out.
Helmuth Hübener, after listening to this broadcast, decided to share the news with other Germans, and this was the journey that led to his death a few months later. Helmuth Hübener was born on January 8th 1925, to a religious family in Hamburg.
He was a member of the Boys Scout until 1935 when the National Socialists banned it and required the youth to join the Hitler Youth as a government order. He entered and quit in 1938 after the Kristallnacht when the Hitler Youth and Nazi pro communities destroyed the homes and businesses of the Jews.
Soon enough, one of the church leaders in his Latter-day Saints Church banned the Jews from attending their services. He found this to be worrisome but kept hearing the church services. He finished middle school in 1941 and began training as an apprentice at the Hamburg Social Authority. Here he met Gerhard Düwer, who joined his resistance movement.
He also met a communist friend who encouraged him to listen to foreign media, which was forbidden in Nazi Germany and considered a form of treason. He also began eavesdropping when his brother listened to his radio and used the information he got to write anti-war pamphlets. He used these pamphlets to shed light on the actual state of the German army and the criminal behaviour of the Nazi government.
On February 5th, 1942, he was arrested at his workplace by the Gestapo. His coworker, Heinrich Mohn, a Nazi party member, had seen him writing the pamphlet and reported him to the authorities. He was taken to prison alongside two of his friends, where they were tortured and abused.
On August 11th 1942, he was tried by the Volksgerichtshof in Berlin as an adult and sentenced to death on counts of treason. After the sentence had been given, he told the judges: “Now I must die, even though I have committed no crime. So now it’s my turn, but your turn will come.” His friends, however, were given 5 and 10 years sentences.
He was beheaded on October 27th at the age of 17.
