4th Quarter Read: The Boy Who Dared

This quarter I read The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.  This story takes place during World War II in Germany where Adolph Hitler is in power.  The main character, Helmuth Hubener, is only a teenager, and he is on death row for trying to distribute information against the Nazis.  The story is told while Helmuth is on death row and thinking back on his life and the events that led to his arrest and trial.  Helmuth was raised as a Mormon in Germany.  He is a good boy.  While he is growing up, Germany is in a bad economic condition, and Adolph Hitler is convincing the citizens that he can change this for them.  Hitler is taking more power in Germany as the leader of the National Socialist Party and then becomes Chancellor.  Helmuth is very patriotic.  Hitler made a law that required youth to participate in his Hitler Youth.  At first, Helmuth is very excited to participate in Hitler’s army.  He was impressed with the patriotism it was promoting.  But, as time goes on, Helmuth begins to question if what Hitler is doing is right.  He is attacking other countries, targeting the Jews as bad people, and keeping Germans from hearing what the world has to say about what he is doing.  Helmuth sees his Jewish neighbors and friends being beaten and taken away by the Nazi Germans.  He secretly listens to the BBC on the radio and hears a lot of information that tells a different story from what Hitler is telling the Germans.  He wants to let others know about what he knows from the BBC, so he begins to secretly hand out flyers against Hitler in his town of Hamburg.  Eventually he gets arrested.  The Nazis beat him and torture him and he is put on death row.  On October 27, 1942, after 264 days in Plotzensee Prison in Berlin, Germany Helmuth Hubener is executed by the Nazis.  He was only 17 years old.