what happened to Germans who were against Hitler?

Sixteen-year-old Helmuth Hübener couldn't believe his ears. As he crouched in a closet in Hamburg, secretly listening to his brother'due south forbidden short-wave radio, the voice of the BBC announcer painted a moving picture of Nazi Deutschland that was dramatically different from the 1 he had been told to believe.

When Hitler and Nazi officials went on the radio to talk to Germans like Hübener, they spoke of impending victory and praised the greatness of their state. But the Germany the BBC described—and the progress of the war its reporters tracked—sounded similar it was on the brink of disaster.

As he listened to that forbidden radio circulate in 1941, Hübener decided to tell his boyfriend Germans the truth about Nazi Germany. Inside months he would exist dead—the youngest-ever victim of the Third Reich'due south infamous People's Court.

Hübener's curt life was shaped by the rising of fascism in Germany. The Nazis inverse about every facet of everyday life for Germans, and the male child was no exception. A devoted Male child Scout, he was forced to become part of the Hitler Youth, the youth arm of the Nazi Party, when the Nazis banned the organization in 1935.

Germany's young fascists receive famous salute during a mass march in Berlin, 1934. (Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images)

None of this saturday well with Hübener, and in 1938, when he was 13 years old, he quit the Hitler Youth when they participated in Kristallnacht, a night of terror during which Nazi sympathizers destroyed synagogues, set up fire to Jewish property and attacked Jews.

He was disturbed by other changes, too. A fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-24-hour interval Saints, he watched as the leader of his church joined the Nazi Political party and the congregation became increasingly supportive of the Third Reich. It was a common move for Mormon churches in Germany and occupied countries, as many congregations worried they might exist persecuted past the Nazis, too.

These events upset him, and the teenager began to question the Nazis' hatred of Jews and the Third Reich'due south growing control of German social club. As he became older and started working equally a trainee in social administration, Hübener realized that others had the same doubts. And so he began listening to forbidden radio broadcasts and became convinced that the regime was not just racist and manipulative, but was losing the war.

Hübener's actions were extremely risky. Radio had helped the Nazis ascent to ability by spreading their messages to a mass audience. Once the 3rd Reich took over Germany, they began to use the radio to control the population. They flooded the airwaves with propaganda broadcasts, spreading fake reports of glorious victories and bright prospects where there were none.

Plaque for Helmut Hubener. (Credit: Hinnerk11/Wikimedia Commons/CC By-SA iv.0)

It was forbidden to listen to any non-government radio transmissions, similar the BBC's multi-language broadcasts. However, many Germans disobeyed. For people like Hübener, radio from other countries was the only way to larn the truth about the war.

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Hübener decided to spread these facts to people who didn't dare listen to the outlawed broadcasts. With the assistance of three friends, he wrote, printed and distributed up to 60 pamphlets that included data from the BBC and chosen on Germans to resist Hitler. They stuck the pamphlets in glaze pockets, left them in phone booths, and pinned them to bulletin boards.

According to German propaganda, the Pearl Harbor set on had destroyed the United States' ability to fight a war in Europe. Hübener provided details to the contrary, assuring Germans that rumors of American military weakness were lies. He disputed official accounts of the war on the Eastern front end, as well, revealing that despite Germany's insistence that battles in Russian federation had been won, they were still raging weeks after propaganda reports that victory had already been achieved.

Hübener's pamphlets countered the Nazi message of victory in battle. They also fought dorsum confronting Nazi propaganda that encouraged all Germans to support a state of war effort that was not just justified, but sure to succeed.

Roland Freisler, the President of the 'National Socialist People's Court' (Volksgerichtshof). Hither he is reading out the verdict confronting the 8 suspects of the bump-off endeavor on Hitler, the so-called July Plot, at the courtroom in Berlin, 1944. (Credit: DPA/Film-Alliance/AP Images)

"The Führer has promised you lot that 1942 will exist decisive and this fourth dimension he will stop at nix to keep his hope," he wrote in one pamphlet. "He volition send you lot past the thousands into the fires in order to cease the criminal offense he started. By the thousands your wives and children will become widows and orphans. And for nothing!"

For months, Hübener spread the word most lost battles and Nazi lies. But in February 1942, a coworker who saw him writing the pamphlets turned him in to Nazi officials. He was arrested and tried before the Volksgerichtshof, or People's Court, a Nazi-controlled tribunal that dealt with matters of treason.

Hübener and his friends were imprisoned in Berlin's Plötzensee Prison house forth with other political prisoners. The prison was notorious for its harsh treatment of prisoners and every bit a site of endless summary executions. For ten weeks, the boys were tortured and intimidated equally they awaited trial. When the Nazi head of Hübener'due south congregation found out well-nigh the arrest, he excommunicated the boy from the Mormon Church.

Finally, the trial arrived. Hübener, who was just 17 years old, was tried as an adult. Rather than argue for his release, the boy instead confronted the judges about the Nazi regime and the war. When a judge asked him if he really idea Germany would lose the state of war, he asked, "Don't y'all?" His friends later told family members that they idea Hübener was purposely baiting the judges so they'd give the other boys less severe sentences.

Memorial in the execution room at Ploetzensee Prison house, Berlin, Germnay. (Credit: Siegfried Grassegger/imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock)

That's exactly what happened. His friends were sentenced to imprisonment in labor camps, just Helmuth Hübener was convicted of conspiracy to commit high treason and treasonous furthering of the enemy's causes and sentenced to expiry by beheading. Because his crime was considered and so serious, Hübener'due south sentence gave the Nazis legal justification for both his execution as a small-scale and the torture he had already withstood.

When asked if he had anything to say before his sentencing, Hübener confronted the judges once again. "I take to die now for no offense at all," he said. "Your plow is next!"

On October 27, 1942, guards told Hübener that Adolf Hitler had personally refused to commute his death sentence. Hours afterwards, he was beheaded—the youngest person ever executed by the Third Reich.

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Source: https://www.history.com/news/meet-the-youngest-person-executed-for-defying-the-nazis

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