Alan F. Keele

When Truth Was Treason German Youth against Hitler The Story of the Helmuth Hubener Group Based on the Narrative of Karl-Heinz Schnibbe With Documents and Notes ,Compiled, Translated, and Edited by Blair R. Homes and Alan F. Keele (read 1 May 2016) This book tells of a teenage Mormon boy in Germany during World War II who sought to awaken his countrymen to the evil of Hitler. The book is not easy to read. There are 142 pages setting out the account of Karl-Heinz Schnibbe who was a collaborator with Helmuth Hubener. but Hubener was the originator of the scheme--to produce leaflets against Hitler. Hubener listened to British broadcasts and composed leaflets telling Germans the truth about Hitler and the war. Hubener was arrested and tried and executed. The three persons who did some distribution for him included Schnibbe and this book tells of the imprsonment of Schnibbe by the Nazis until April 1945 when he was 'liberated' by the Russians and taken to Russia and did not get back to Germany for years. .There are 72 documents, occupying 134 pages, and Notes occupying 102 pages--if one were to read the notes as one read the text one would be turning back and forth in the book continuously. I read a chapter and then read the notes for that chapter, which is not an ideal way to read notes. Some of the documents are referred to in the narrative but some are not and the documents are not arranged in the order in which they are mentioned, so reading the documents is kind of a hit and miss system. Some of what is related is of huge interest and appalling but reading of the awful conditions ot prison soon palls, so I did not find the reading interest-holding. But one is glad that despite all Schnibbe went through he survived and after the war emigrated to the United States and to Utah..… (meer)