Truth or Treason: Part I

Part I

I don’t know how many parts this series will have. I had so many thoughts last night as my huband and I watched the Truth or Treason , the new film about Helmuth Huebener, the youngest resistance fighter executed in Nazi Germany.

I have known this story since 1975, when I portrayed Helmuth’s mother in Tom Rogers’ play “Huebener” at BYU.

This first part of my series will be simply my gut reaction–and my gut reacted throughout the film, starting with the opening minutes when a violent beating is depicted. The brilliant Matt Whittaker, director and writer, quickly shows us how high the stakes are for anti-Nazi activists in 1942 Germany. It’s a merciless beating, and I reacted with a gasped “Oh! Oh!”–so loud that I worried I was disturbing the guy next to me. But I couldn’t stop my visceral responses. They happened throughout the movie. (Incidentally, I would not take a child under twelve to this film, though I would strongly urge youth near Huebener’s age–16–to see it and participate in a discussion afterwards.)

The beating portrayed early in the film lets us know  how violent the consequences might be for 17-year-old Helmuth Huebener (Hübener) when he is identified as the creator of anti-Nazi flyers, posted throughout Hamburg. Through beatings and inhumane threats, Huebener (portrayed with depth and subtlety by Ewan Horrocks) is compelled to name his co-conspirators, Rudi Wobbe and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (beautifully portrayed by actors Daf Thomas and Ferdinand McKay).  Their youthful exuberance is familiar and delightful as they challenge each other to do brave things, such as jumping from a bridge into a river or racing their bicycles. But they are immediately challenged by members of the Hitler Youth (portrayed by Lithuanians cast in Vilnius where the movie was made). The childish confrontations are underscored by a deeply serious refrain: “Heil Hitler!”

What seemed inevitable to many–the expansion of Germany’s borders into other lands and the narrative that Germany was destined to be “the third Reich”–is not a game but a full-scale conquest, complete with enemies either identified or created. The enemy list soon comprises the entire Jewish population, including the boys’ good friend, Salomon Schwartz (played by Nye Occomore).

We quickly meet the dutiful and complicated SS chief, Erwin Mussener, whose arc is brilliantly conveyed simply through his eyes and almost invisible expressions. At one moment, when he is alone with Huebener, who has challenged him to acknowledge the truth–that Germany will lose the war–I was suspended between hope and knowledge. Would Mussener finally speak truth? Finally relent? The answer (without spoilers) is NO.

I hope that this film starts a movement in which we all learn to discern lies better and stand up for truth. We in the USA are on the verge of becoming a nation much different than what it was designed to be. Only the truth will save us.

See it. It opens on October 17th.

Rupert Evans as Mussener