Hübener was born in an apolitical family in Hamburg, Germany. He belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) as well did his mother and grandparents. Hugo, his adoptive father gave him the name Hübener. Helmuth as a small child was a member of the Boy Scouts, an organization supported by his church. But in 1935 the Nazis banned the scouting from Germany. When Germany banned scouting,Hübener was forced to join the Hitler Youth, as it was required by the government.
Later on the Nazis destroyed Jewish homes and businesses. Then they made a law that Jews were not allowed to do and attend religious service. When Hübener finished middle school in 1941, he began an apprenticeship as an administrator at the Hamburg Social Authority. He met with other apprentice’s, one that followed his Resistant Movement
is Gerhard Düwer. Hübener was listening to a restricted radio station. They way he listened to the radio station was when his brother bought a short wave radio. At night he would sneak it into the kitchen and would listen to BBC, a British radio station. Later on he heard the truth about the war that was happening in Germany. Then he started to write leaflets which were designed to bring the Germans to the truth about the war, and to show the way many Nazi officials act (as in their criminal behavior). He made many, many copies. In an autumn of 1941 he in involved three friends in his act.
Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe, who were fellow Latter-day Saints, and later Gerhard Düwer. Hübener made 60 different pamphlets. They all contained material from the British broadcasts. They distributed them throughout Hamburg, using such methods as surreptitiously pinning them on bulletin boards, inserting them into letterboxes, and stuffing them in coat pockets. On 5 February 1942, Helmuth Hübener was arrested by the Gestapo at his workplace in the Hamburger Bieberhaus. While trying to translate the pamphlets into French and trying to have them distributed among prisoners of war, he had been noticed by Nazi Party member Heinrich Mohn, who had denounced him. On 11 August 1942, Hübener's case was tried at the Volksgerichtshof in Berlin, and on 27 October, at the age of 17, he was beheaded by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. His two friends, Schnibbe and Wobbe, who had also been arrested, were given prison sentences of five and ten years respectively.
Volksgerichtshof's proclamation from 27 October 1942 announcing Hübener's execution. As stated in the proclamation, Hübener was found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason and treasonous furthering of the enemy's cause. He was sentenced not only to death, but also to permanent loss of his civil rights, which means he could be (and was) mistreated in prison, with no bedding or blankets in his cold cell, for instance. Hübener's lawyers and his mother, and the Berlin Gestapo appealed for clemency in his case, hoping to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. In their eyes, the fact that Hübener had confessed fully and shown himself to be still morally uncorrupted were points in his favour. The Reich Youth Leadership (Reichsjugendführung) would have none of it, however, and stated that the danger posed by Hübener's activities to the German people's war effort made the death penalty necessary. On 27 October 1942, the Nazi Ministry of Justice upheld the Volksgerichtshof's verdict. Hübener was only told of the Ministry's decision at 1:05 p.m. on the scheduled day of execution and beheaded at 8:13 p.m. In 1937, LDS President Heber Grant had visited Germany and urged the members to remain, get along, and not cause trouble. Consequently, some LDS members saw Huebner as a troublemaker who made things tough for other Mormons. Local LDS leader Arthur Zander was a fervent member of the Nazi Party, even to the extent of affixing notices to the church door stating "Jews not welcome" since 1938. He had attempted to protect others of his religious group and thus had excommunicated the young man, but in his haste and likely fear, had done so without proper authority, without first obtaining his district president's permission. That district president was Otto Berndt, who, in fact, was sympathetic to Hübener and was suspected of assisting and encouraging the boy. Berndt was soon after questioned by the Gestapo and released with an ominous warning: "After Jews, you Mormons will be next." Hübener was arrested by German authorities and two days later was excommunicated by local authorities of the LDS Church. Four years later and after the war, Hübener was posthumously reinstated in the LDS Church in 1946, with the note "excommunicated by mistake", because the specific process required for excommunication from the LDS Church was not followed by Arthur Zander, Hübener's local church leader at the time. The day of his execution, Hübener wrote to a fellow branch member, "I know that God lives and He will be the Just Judge in this matter... I look forward to seeing you in a better world!" — from a letter written by Hübener, the only one believed to still exist.
Later on the Nazis destroyed Jewish homes and businesses. Then they made a law that Jews were not allowed to do and attend religious service. When Hübener finished middle school in 1941, he began an apprenticeship as an administrator at the Hamburg Social Authority. He met with other apprentice’s, one that followed his Resistant Movement
is Gerhard Düwer. Hübener was listening to a restricted radio station. They way he listened to the radio station was when his brother bought a short wave radio. At night he would sneak it into the kitchen and would listen to BBC, a British radio station. Later on he heard the truth about the war that was happening in Germany. Then he started to write leaflets which were designed to bring the Germans to the truth about the war, and to show the way many Nazi officials act (as in their criminal behavior). He made many, many copies. In an autumn of 1941 he in involved three friends in his act.
Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe, who were fellow Latter-day Saints, and later Gerhard Düwer. Hübener made 60 different pamphlets. They all contained material from the British broadcasts. They distributed them throughout Hamburg, using such methods as surreptitiously pinning them on bulletin boards, inserting them into letterboxes, and stuffing them in coat pockets. On 5 February 1942, Helmuth Hübener was arrested by the Gestapo at his workplace in the Hamburger Bieberhaus. While trying to translate the pamphlets into French and trying to have them distributed among prisoners of war, he had been noticed by Nazi Party member Heinrich Mohn, who had denounced him. On 11 August 1942, Hübener's case was tried at the Volksgerichtshof in Berlin, and on 27 October, at the age of 17, he was beheaded by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. His two friends, Schnibbe and Wobbe, who had also been arrested, were given prison sentences of five and ten years respectively.
Volksgerichtshof's proclamation from 27 October 1942 announcing Hübener's execution. As stated in the proclamation, Hübener was found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason and treasonous furthering of the enemy's cause. He was sentenced not only to death, but also to permanent loss of his civil rights, which means he could be (and was) mistreated in prison, with no bedding or blankets in his cold cell, for instance. Hübener's lawyers and his mother, and the Berlin Gestapo appealed for clemency in his case, hoping to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. In their eyes, the fact that Hübener had confessed fully and shown himself to be still morally uncorrupted were points in his favour. The Reich Youth Leadership (Reichsjugendführung) would have none of it, however, and stated that the danger posed by Hübener's activities to the German people's war effort made the death penalty necessary. On 27 October 1942, the Nazi Ministry of Justice upheld the Volksgerichtshof's verdict. Hübener was only told of the Ministry's decision at 1:05 p.m. on the scheduled day of execution and beheaded at 8:13 p.m. In 1937, LDS President Heber Grant had visited Germany and urged the members to remain, get along, and not cause trouble. Consequently, some LDS members saw Huebner as a troublemaker who made things tough for other Mormons. Local LDS leader Arthur Zander was a fervent member of the Nazi Party, even to the extent of affixing notices to the church door stating "Jews not welcome" since 1938. He had attempted to protect others of his religious group and thus had excommunicated the young man, but in his haste and likely fear, had done so without proper authority, without first obtaining his district president's permission. That district president was Otto Berndt, who, in fact, was sympathetic to Hübener and was suspected of assisting and encouraging the boy. Berndt was soon after questioned by the Gestapo and released with an ominous warning: "After Jews, you Mormons will be next." Hübener was arrested by German authorities and two days later was excommunicated by local authorities of the LDS Church. Four years later and after the war, Hübener was posthumously reinstated in the LDS Church in 1946, with the note "excommunicated by mistake", because the specific process required for excommunication from the LDS Church was not followed by Arthur Zander, Hübener's local church leader at the time. The day of his execution, Hübener wrote to a fellow branch member, "I know that God lives and He will be the Just Judge in this matter... I look forward to seeing you in a better world!" — from a letter written by Hübener, the only one believed to still exist.
