Shadow and Subterfuge Series





Helmuth Hübener: The Teenager Beheaded for Telling the Truth

Helmuth Hübener was a 17-year-old Hitler Youth member when he saw through Hitler’s lies by illegally listening to BBC radio. Using the information he heard, he wrote anti-Nazi and anti-war flyers. He convinced two friends, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe, to help him distribute the papers throughout Hamburg. After a co-worker denounced him, the Gestapo arrested him for treason, and he was tried as an adult. Found guilty, he was beheaded by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

Schnibbe was sentenced to five years in a labor camp. During the last days of the war, he was released to serve in the German army, taken prisoner by the Soviets, and sent to a POW camp in Russia. After his release, he immigrated to the Salt Lake City area in 1952. He died on May 9, 2010.

Wobbe survived the war and was released to return to Hamburg in 1945, where he rejoined Helmuth Hübener’s two half brothers, Hans and Gerhard Kunkel. They joined the German immigrants to Salt Lake City.

Helmuth Hübener Haus in Hamburg is one of the many measures to preserve the memory of the young hero. A play depicting the friends’ struggle for free speech was written and produced by Utah writer Thomas Rogers.

Wobbe published his story in Three Against Hitler in 1992.

Angel Studios released the movie Truth and Treason in 2025.

I grew curious about the story from the Hamburg street sign and started research. The movie is worth a watch.