[WARNING: the following includes some things that maybe considered spoilers by those who haven’t seen the film.]
I’m not sure how well it is known, but the film “Truth and Treason”, currently in theaters, tells the story of a young LDS man in Hamburg, Germany in 1942. Helmuth Hübener’s story has been told before, perhaps best in Tom Rogers’ 1976 play, Huebener. The film’s story is a faithful retelling of the events, starting with the attacks on Helmuth’s friend and fellow church member, Salomon Schwarz, who was abducted by the SS that year because he was half Jewish (Salomon later died in Auschwitz). Motivated by this and by the BBC broadcasts he heard on an illicit short-wave radio, Helmuth began producing anti-Hitler pamphlets, first using a typewriter borrowed from his Hamburg branch of the LDS Church, and eventually using the branch’s duplicating machine. Enlisting two additional friends from the branch, Rudi and Karl, he distributed the pamphlets around Hamburg. Hübener was eventually caught, tried and executed by the Reich at age 17—he was the youngest person executed by the Reich for resistance.
What I liked most about the film was how sympathetically the characters were. Many retellings of the story have criticized the Hamburg branch president, Arthur Zander, who supported the Nazi party and who claimed to have excommunicated Hübener. While not excusing his actions, the film suggests the difficulty of balancing his responsibilities to the Truth, to his congregation and to his loyalty to party—the film shows him discovering one of Hübener’s pamphlets and going to turn him in, only to decide not to at the last minute.
Also sympathetic was the portrayal of the SS Commissar who was trying to identify the source of the pamphlets. We often see his family life and especially his relationship with his children. In addition, repeatedly during the film, air-raid sirens are heard and everyone heads to bunkers as the city is bombed. During one air-raid, a bomb hits the shelter where the Commissar and his family are sheltered, and his young daughter is killed. In spite of this, we see him show kindness and grace to Hübener, but also participating in his torture.
The sympathetic portrayal of most characters in the film lead me to think about how we should look at the story. We’re asked liken the scriptures to ourselves and I think that often works with other stories as well. And in this case, we are just like many characters in the story. What can we learn when we think of ourselves as Hübener? As Zander, or as the SS Commissar?
Given that the LDS filmmaker has been working on this project for twenty years (I’ve been told), I don’t think that the timing of its release is intentional in any way. However, it did open in theaters just a few days before the “No Kings” rally this past weekend, which calls attention to the increasing authoritarianism and disregard of our democratic norms by the current administration. Because of how I see our current political situation, the timing leads me to ask some questions of myself:
So, if I were in the Hamburg branch in 1942, what would I do? Would I have supported Hübener? Or would I have supported the branch president? Or to what degree would I support both?
What about earlier? Say the mid 1930s, before Kristallnacht? What would I have done? As Hitler rose, and became increasingly authoritarian, finding an enemy to hate and convincing the people to turn against them. When in the process of increasing hate and authoritarianism should I have spoken up?
I’d like to think that I would speak up early. And I hope that I am speaking up early. I hope that the current administration manipulating, twisting and ignoring the law isn’t the same as the Nazi efforts in the 1930s. I hope that the 1930s act of making an enemy of the Jews is not the same as the current administration making an enemy of immigrants, Latinos and Palestinians.
If it’s not, then when does it become so? An element of the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the 1930 was that the change happened over time — no one complained strongly enough, so the National Socialists kept going, building their ability to do increasingly authoritarian things until everyone was afraid to say anything. Maybe they thought that Hitler would get what he said he wanted and then stop. Is that ever likely? If we’re uncomfortable with what is happening now, why would we think it would stop?
I can’t predict the future. I realize that the level of authoritarian actions we are experiencing isn’t nearly as bad as what Helmuth Hübener faced. But won’t it just get worse? If it won’t, how do we know? And won’t it end up with our not being able to stop it?
Even if it doesn’t end up worse, are we really ok with this? With masked and unidentified government agents kidnapping people off the streets? With the judicial system being used for political revenge? With the administration ignoring the widely-understood interpretation of what the executive can do and what is the province of congress? With the administration firing those in government positions that were established to be independent of the executive? Even if the Supreme Court says these things are constitutional, why should we be ok with the violation of a widely-held understanding, by BOTH parties, of how our government works?
Lest someone claim that I’m just saying this because I do not belong to the party in power, I spent the bulk of my life as a Republican and as a conservative. I changed because I saw both of those positions co-opted by a man who is morally flawed and unfit for office. I ask you to ask yourself, if the other party did this, would I be screaming about how it was wrong? Are you letting all this happen just because it’s your party that benefits? Don’t you think the shoe will eventually end up on the other foot? Are you ready to be kicked by it?
Like Hübener, do we have to have fellow Church members abducted by the equivalent of the SS before we act? — If so, has that not already happened?
When do we act? Pastor Martin Niemöeller memorably captured the question, I think, in his well-known meditation on the rise of the Nazis:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
Are you so past feeling that you are willing to let others be ill-treated just because they are different than you? And, since LDS Church members are also, at best, a misunderstood minority, don’t you think this administration will eventually come for you?
When do we recognize the problem? When do we act? How do we act?
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