Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: One instance of a religious exclamation

Violence: Violence aimed at Jews before and during WWII.  Helmut witnesses a member of the SS brutally beat up a Jewish store owner. While in prison, Helmut hears another prisoner taken to the executioner and he hears the guillotine fall. Riots, beatings, and lootings  occur on Kristallnacht. Rumors about what the Nazi soldiers do to Polish prisoners. A friend of Helmut’s comes back from a work camp and describes what was done to him there. On returning he had no teeth, the Nazis had poured water over his hands, let them freeze then hit them with a board. He was forced to stand outside naked in the freezing weather and all of his fingers were broken. Helmut is beaten and kicked by the Gestapo.

Adult Themes: Anti-Semitism, propaganda, torture and executions, disobedience to laws based on conscience, morals, values. Helmuth’s mother lives with her boyfriend before they are married.

Synopsis

In his prison cell, 17-year old Helmuth Hübener awaits the day of his execution. As he anticipates his last day on earth, his mind wanders back to the many scenes in his life leading up to this one. He reminisces about his family, his initial wide-eyed admiration of the quick stepping, sharply clad Nazi troops, and his gradual disillusionment and eventual resistance.

Helmuth and his family initially support Hitler and his plans to free Germany from the WWI reparations holding their country and citizens hostage. They go along with the rhetoric that they must give up some of their rights for the better good of the nation, so when they begin to lose the freedom of speech and press they wince, but know it is for the best. But when the Nazis decree that Germans don’t buy from Jews and when Germany begins to invade peaceful neighboring countries, Helmuth starts to think more critically, but thinking critically can land you in jail, or worse. To protect himself and his family, Helmuth toes the party line. He writes an essay on the virtues of  Hitler and the Nazi party in order to secure a good grade, but then feels like a traitor to himself and what he believes. He loathes the silence he maintains to stay out of trouble and hates himself for doing nothing to challenge government policies.

When Helmuth’s brother brings home a radio that can receive the BBC, Helmuth secretly listens to England’s broadcasts each night. Eventually recruiting his two best friends from church, Rudi Wobbe and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, the threesome begins transcribing the BBC broadcasts and secretly distributing them around Hamburg. They realize they could face serious charges if caught, but they all believed, as Helmuth stated, “I don’t want to remember a time when I could have done something, but didn’t.”

I first became familiar with Helmuth Hübener’s story while in college when Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, one of Helmuth’s compatriots, came to my university for a guest lecture. He told their story of resistance and I was immediately taken with these three brave, young boys. The Boy Who Dared is a harrowing story of Helmuth’s growth as he begins to see clearly what is happening in the world around him. He believed one must give up safety and comfort for freedom, and he did just that.  He wanted to live a life that stood for something and he was sentenced to die for telling the truth. I guess we will never really know if the leaflets Helmuth, Rudi, and Karl-Heinz distributed had an effect on anyone who read them, but I find this story inspiring in that these young men confronted the madness around them and Helmuth died knowing he had taken a stand for right. Based on a true story.

The reading level on this book is age 9-12. Although there is not a lot of graphic content, I think the subject matter is a little heavy for that age group. I would recommend it for ages 13 and up.