On October 27, 1942, the Nazis executed the youngest person they ever formally sentenced to death.
His name was Helmuth Hübener.
His crime was telling the truth.
In 1941, Helmuth began writing leaflets criticizing Hitler’s regime and sharing news he heard on forbidden Allied radio broadcasts. He and a few close friends knew full well the danger they were in, but they believed that telling the truth about what the Nazis were doing was something they had to do.
Of course it didn’t take long for the Gestapo to catch them.
Helmuth was arrested and charged with “conspiracy to commit high treason.” He was tried in front of the Special People’s Court in Berlin, where he stood defiant.
As the judges ordered his execution, he said:
“Now I must die, even though I have committed no crime. So now it’s my turn, but your turn will come.”
A few months later, Helmuth was beheaded. He was 17 years old.
Last week, I stood in Germany at the exact spot where he was executed. It was surreal to stand where he made that ultimate sacrifice for the truth. And it struck me—this is what happens when governments become drunk on power and people let fear replace courage.
How much evil has been given power to spread, simply because regular people were “just doing their jobs,” or because they didn’t want to make waves—didn’t want to stand out or speak up?
We included Helmuth’s story in The Tuttle Twins Guide to Courageous Heroes because his example is one every kid—and every adult—should know.
Helmuth wasn’t a soldier or a politician. He was just a kid who knew right from wrong, and he refused to stay silent in the face of evil.
The scary part is how quickly evil like that can rise to power.
It didn’t start with concentration camps. It started with propaganda, fear, and a government so bent on control that they labeled the truth as treason.
This is exactly why the education of our kids matters so much today. Governments will always try to overreach, to control, to replace truth with whatever serves their agenda, so it’s on us to make sure the next generation knows better—and has the courage to stand up when things start to get bad.
Really, this is the reason the Tuttle Twins exists.
We tell stories that explain to kids that standing for truth takes guts, but it’s always the right thing to do.
We’re on a mission to teach kids about courage, truth, and the kind of world worth fighting for.
One of our best-loved resources is our monthly Tuttle Times magazine.
It helps kids stay looped into the things happening in the world today, it features stories of other kids doing great things, and it gives them opportunities to think deeply about how they interpret and interact with the world around them.
Today and tomorrow only, we’re offering a yearly subscription at a special discounted rate, so click here to check it out!
There’s an exchange in Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring that I often think about in relation to raising a generation who will very likely have to have a great deal of courage. It inspires me to have faith that so long as I do what I can, my kids will be ready to face what the future holds:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I hope none of our kids ever have to face the things that Helmuth Hübener and his friends did. No one wants to see their kids face the darkness and depravity that so many before us had to live through.
But I also hope that should they be called on to stand brave in the face of great evil, they will do so with courage and conviction.
I want to do everything I can to make sure they’re ready for every battle that is theirs to fight.
— Connor