Over the weekend, I read a book called Hübener vs.Hitler: A Biography of Helmuth Hübener, Mormon Teenage Resistance Leader. It was a fascinating book about a young LDS boy that was beyond his years. He was the branch clerk for a small branch in Hamburg, Germany during the WWII years. With the typewriter he was given to do branch reports, he typed up leaflets after illegally listening to the London BBC on a radio that he had hidden in his room. He recruited friends and associates to distribute thousands of leaflets that spoke bad about Hitler, the Gestapo, and the war in general.
As you would imagine, all of these things were incredibly illegal and the books talks about the capture of Helmuth and a few of his friends, some of the tortures they went through, a trial with the highest court in the land and 16 year old Helmuth standing strong and defiant until the very last moment. I always enjoy books on history, but this one was especially interesting to me because it was a young man taking on the great Nazi party and their sadistic leader.
It got me wondering, how would I have responded in the pages of history. I’d like to think that I would have stood up for what is right, but it’s really hard to tell. Would I have found ways to undermine the Nazis?
Over the last few days I’ve been letting my mind wander to different stages in history and placing myself in those times. Try it yourself. It is an interesting means to a self inventory.