Now in US theaters, ‘Truth and Treason’ tells story of Helmuth Hubener, a German whose religious convictions inspired him to speak truth to power even if it meant risking his life
By RICH TENORIO
The year is 1942 and 17-year-old Helmuth Hubener is standing before a red-robed Nazi judge, accused of committing high treason against the Third Reich. The judge marvels that a religious youth like Hubener — a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — could be responsible for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in his hometown of Hamburg and other German municipalities.
Hubener’s lawyer presents the teen with a way out, advising him to falsely denounce his friend Karl-Heinz Schnibbe as the real mastermind of the plot. He presents Hubener with a statement he has already drafted to read in court.
But rather than frame his friend, Hubener puts down the statement and gives dramatic testimony, stating that Germany is ruled by a lunatic, fighting an unwinnable war. The judge remonstrates with him, but the teenager gets the better of the argument: “Hitler will stop at nothing. The people deserve the truth.”
Infuriated, the judge orders Hubener physically silenced. A harsh sentencing awaits.
The scene marks a pivotal moment in the new feature film “Truth and Treason,” which debuted in nearly 2,000 theaters across the United States on October 17. The drama in the faith-based film comes from the real-life story of Hubener, described by the production as “the youngest resistance fighter Nazi Germany sentenced to death for taking a stand against Hitler.”
Distributor Angel Studios is no stranger to World War II dramas or films with religious messages, having combined both in 2024’s “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin.” Hubener’s story is less well-known than that the anti-Hitler clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, despite his selfless acts and ultimate sacrifice.
“I was fortunate to discover one of the most powerful stories to come out of WWII, and almost no one has heard of it,” director Matt Whitaker said in a press release. “I can’t wait for the world to experience this incredible story of heroism.”
Ewan Horrocks, the British actor who plays Hubener, called Hubener “a young voice who stood up and did something so brave.”
“It’s about standing up for people and speaking the truth,” Horrocks told The Times of Israel on a virtual media day. “Speaking for people who can’t necessarily voice themselves as well, which is a really beautiful and powerful thing.”
The Bonhoeffer film garnered controversy over its alleged depictions of the famously pacifist pastor as a gun-toting adversary of Hitler who joins an assassination plot against the Fuhrer.
“Truth and Treason,” in contrast, focuses on acts of civil disobedience and has so far won plaudits from critics.
In the film, a mixture of motivations prompts Hubener to disseminate anti-Nazi messages on red note cards in mail slots and on car windshields. Already wise to Nazi propagandists’ lies about how Germany is faring in the war thanks to clandestinely listening to antifascist British radio broadcasts, he becomes upset when Nazis arrest his Jewish friend, Salomon Schwarz, and ransack his house.
“[Hubener] sees [Salomon] as an absolute equal,” said actress Joanna Christie, who plays Hubener’s mother, Emma Hubener. “His faith teaches him that we are all equals, and there is no reason why [Salomon] should be treated any differently.”
After Schwarz’s home has been looted, a disconsolate Hubener meets with his local bishop, who had displayed a sign outside their church banning Jews.
“We can’t always expect to understand why things happen the way they do,” the bishop says.
A few moments later, the bishop advises, “Never let anything shake your faith. Be true to your convictions.”
“God will use you to further the work of his Reich,” he adds.
It’s fair to say Hubener’s convictions are indeed unshaken by this disturbing encounter. He borrows a typewriter from the bishop and some red notecards from the Hamburg banned-books archive, which happens to be in city hall, his place of employment. He convinces his friends, Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe, to join him in the dangerous pursuit of distributing the leaflets. Yet Hubener is the one behind their erudite messages.
“He did what he could,” Horrocks said. “[The authorities] thought he was a university professor... What a compliment that is to his writings. He was a very smart kid, a bright kid and a very thoughtful, deep-thinking individual.”
To prepare for her audition for the role of Hubener’s mother, Christie watched “Truth & Conviction: The Helmuth Hubener Story,” a 2002 documentary also directed by Whitaker.
She described herself as moved by interview footage with Schnibbe, who endured Nazi imprisonment and survived the war.
“It was incredible to see [Schnibbe], as an old man, talking about his childhood, and his friends, and his deep friendships with the other boys, and him talking about his fear about what they were doing, and how scared he was,” Christie said. “But also the laughs and the jokes and the friendship between the lads. That documentary was so amazing to have, to then... inform our performances and our storytelling.”
Whitaker’s latest film isn’t a straightforward suspense story. Some of its characters are complex. Gestapo agent Erwin Mussener — played by Rupert Evans, who starred in “The Man in the High Castle” — is relentless in searching for the individual or individuals behind the red typewritten messages.
Yet he’s also a grieving father who lost his daughter to an Allied air raid. Ultimately, Hubener can’t outrun his pursuers. He winds up in jail, subject to physical abuse by Mussener, who gets him to turn in Schnibbe and Wobbe. The three young defendants appear before Germany’s highest court on four charges. A “Heil Hitler” begins the proceedings,
“The second half [of the film] was incredibly emotional for me,” Christie said. “It is an unimaginable situation... [As] a mother, it was just an absolute nightmare.” She added, “The script is so well-written.”
Despite being under 18, Hubener was sentenced to death, becoming the youngest German executed under the Nazi legal system. Though excommunicated by the Mormon church, he was reinstated after the war, and today is remembered by the LDS community as a martyr who remained true to his beliefs, though few non-Mormons are aware of his heroics.
“When we first got the script and were asked to audition, I was shocked I did not know the story,” Christie said. “How was this not already a movie?”
In the credits, photos of the cast appear beside black-and-white historical images of their real-life counterparts, along with textual explanations of their fates. Schnibbe and Wobbe both survived imprisonment by the Nazis and, in Schnibbe’s case, the Soviets as well. After the war, the two reunited and remained lifelong friends. However, their Jewish friend Schwarz was killed at Auschwitz after being deported there on February 12, 1943.
Schnibbe, who was also Mormon, eventually immigrated to the United States and died in Utah in 2010 at age 86.
Aside from its theatrical release, “Truth and Treason” is also being distributed as a four-part TV series. Whitaker invites viewers of the film to download a QR code that will allow them to access the series and share it with others, a fitting act for a film about the power of sharing a message.
A still from ‘Truth and Treason.’ (Courtesy Angel Studios)
“At the bottom of the leaflets, Helmuth typed one quick instruction: ‘This is a chain letter. Pass it on,’” Whitaker says in a “special message” during the credits. “If this film moved you, don’t let it stop with you.”
“In [the] present day, there is so much injustice in the world,” Christie reflected. “Sometimes it feels that the world has become very selfish and self-centered, and divided based on faith, based on ethnicity... We are all human beings, and we need to come together and treat each other equally and keep fighting for that basic humanity. So I really hope that the film inspires people to remember that.”
