Helmuth Hübener

Helmuth Hübener

Helmuth Hübener was born Helmuth Guddat on January 8, 1925 in Hamburg, the Weimer Republic (Present Day Hamburg, Germany.)

His Mother (Emma Guddat Kunkel) and Grandparents raised him in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon.)

In 1939 his Mother remarried and his Adoptive Father (Hugo Hübener) was a Nazi Supporter.

Helmuth was a Boy Scout until the Nazis banned them in 1935 and forced him (and all German Boys) into the Hitler Youth.

He stayed in the Hitler Youth until after the Kristallnacht Pogroms of November 1938 when he quit after seeing Hitler Youth helping to destroy Jewish Homes and Synagogues and attacking Jewish Men, Women and Children.

After Helmuth finished Middle School in 1941 (during World War 2) he became the youngest Apprentice ever in the Administration at the Hamburg Social Authority (Sozialbehörde.)

Shortly after he started listening to Foreign Radio Broadcasts that were banned in Nazi Germany.

He wanted to learn what was really going on around the World and inside Germany.

He started copying the facts from the Broadcasts and distrusting them so other Germans would know the truth too.

One of his Pamphlets stated: “The Führer has promised you that 1942 will be decisive and this time he will stop at nothing to keep his promise, He will send you by the thousands into the fires in order to finish the crime he started. By the thousands your wives and children will become widows and orphans. And for nothing!”

In late 1941 he and 2 other Mormon Friends (Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe) copied 60 different Pamphlets in a span of 8 months and spread them around Hamburg - pinning them on bulletin boards, inserting them into letterboxes and stuffing them in coat pockets.

On February 5, 1942 Helmuth was arrested by the Gestapo at the Hamburg Social Authority where he worked.

He had been denounced by a Co-Worker and Nazi Party Member, Heinrich Mohn.

10 days after his Arrest Helmuth was Excommunicated from the Pro-Nazi Mormon Church in Germany. By its Leader, Arthur Zander.

On August 11, 1942 Helmuth was tried as an Adult by the Special People's Court (German: Volksgerichtshof) in Berlin.

These Special Nazi Courts were used by the Nazis to spread terror across the Country by making Extreme Examples of those on Trial. They were also Show Trials as the Verdict was already decided long before the Trials began.

Helmuth was found Guilty of Conspiracy to Commit High Treason and Treasonous Furthering of the Enemy's Cause and sentenced to Death by Judge Karl Engert despite Nazi Law not allowing the Death Penalty for Minors.

Upon his Sentence Helmuth stated: “"Now I must die, even though I have committed no crime. So now it's my turn, but your turn will come."

Helmuth did this to spare his Friends, who were arrested with him, a lesser Prison Sentence and it worked as the Others were spared the Death Penalty.  

Not only was Helmuth sentenced to Death, but also to Permanent Loss of his Civil Rights, which meant the Prison Guards were allowed to torture and abuse him and he was not allowed bedding or blankets in his cold Cell.

Helmuth’s Lawyers, his Mother, and the Berlin Gestapo appealed for Clemency in his case, hoping to have his sentence Commuted to Life Imprisonment.

 In the Gestapo's eyes, the fact that Helmuth had confessed fully and shown himself to be still morally uncorrupted were points in his favor.

The Reich Youth Leadership (German: Reichsjugendführung) disagreed, however, and stated that the danger posed by Helmuth’s activities to the German People's War Effort made the Death Penalty necessary.

On October 27, 1942 at 8:13 pm, Helmuth was beheaded by Guillotine in the Execution Room at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

He was 17 years old.

In 1946, 4 years later and after his Death and when the War had ended in Germany’s Defeat Helmuth’s Excommunication was declared Null and Void by the Mormon Church's First Presidency and the Church's new German Mission President Max Zimmer, who said the Excommunication was not carried out properly.

Helmuth was also Posthumously ordained an Elder, with full Church Temple Blessings restored in 1948 to clarify that his Membership in the Mormon Church was never in doubt.

A Youth Center and School in Haburg are named after Helmuth.

A 2025 Movie “Truth & Treason” depicts Helmuth Hübener’s Resistance and Death.