Book # 6

Three Against Hitler

by Rudi Wobbe and Jerry Borrowman

This is the true story about 3 LDS teenage German boys who grew up under Hitler's regime; Rudi Wobbe, Helmuth Huebener, and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe. Helmuth was a brilliant young man and believed that Hitler was an evil man. He decided that not only could he not support Hitler, but he felt it his moral duty to oppose him. He illegally listened to the BBC and found out what was really going on, then printed up handbills and his 2 friends Rudi and Karl-Heinz helped to distribute them throughout the city of Hamburg. They were operating fairly successfully until they tried to recruit some others and were overheard by a Nazi sympathizer. They were all arrested. During their trial before the "Blood Tribunal" Helmuth took the spotlight, in an effort to take the focus off of his friends. He spoke bravely against Hitler and the war, which enraged the judges. After a brief sham of a defense by their court appointed attorneys, they were sentenced. Helmuth, age 17, was to be executed by guillotine. Rudi, age 15, was given 10 years imprisonment, and Karl-Heinz, age 16, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

The book follows Rudi (and Karl-Heinz sporadically)  for the next three and a half years as he lives, and suffers in prison camps. The brutality of the Nazi's and the starvation were very disturbing. I can't even imagine it, me in my sheltered little world. It truly amazes me how inhumane man can be to their fellow travelers on this planet. It amazed me even more how skillfully Hitler deceived the German people. Even the bishop of the ward where the three boys attended, believed that Hitler was ordained by God to lead Germany back to glory and power. But there were some decent people who managed to see what was really going on, resist in their own way and still preserve their lives.

There were several such people that Rudi encountered during his ordeal in prison. The first one came to Rudi's aid when he was being brutally beaten by 'der Lange Paul (the tall Paul). "His strikes came so fast and the pain was so great that I thought that this couldn't be happening--that it was a nightmare from which I would awaken. I fell to the ground and he began kicking me viciously. My will to protect myself, to survive left me, and I gave myself up to being kicked to death. Suddenly I felt two strong arms picking me up from the ground, and I was pushed against the wall while someone shielded me from Lange Paul's attack with his own body." This man, named Hans, gave Rudi good advice about how to survive in prison and to deal with the guards, and he told him, "Be strong, don't let them get you down-- remember, you have to survive!" Rudi remembered those words throughout his imprisonment and used them to strengthen his resolve to keep going. After Hans protected him from the guard, Rudi never saw him again, yet he never forgot him.

During his last year of imprisonment, Rudi met another person who stood up for what was right, the best he could under the circumstances. It was the commander of the camp and his name was Dr. Krueger. Rudi was working as a machinist and repairing German aircraft. He did his job well and advanced into trusted positions. He was approached by a member of the Polish underground, who asked him to sabotage the planes he was repairing but Rudi said that he wouldn't do it. He became well liked by the free Germans that he worked with, and one day, one of the test pilots offered to take him on a test flight. Rudi excitedly agreed. A Nazi guard overheard and believed that Rudi was trying to escape. He notified the commander, who didn't believe that it really was Rudi's intention, so the guard went over the commander's head and notified the Gestapo. The Gestapo then tried to get Rudi transferred to a concentration camp, but the commander refused to let them take him. They tried three different times to get Rudi transfered but the commander continued to refuse them. I don't know how he did it, I thought the Gestapo was all powerful. It just goes to show you that someone's reputation isn't necessarily what is true.  Turns out that Rudi was able to return the favor and testify in Dr. Krueger's war crimes trial after the war and help him to get exonerated of inhumane treatment of prisoners and released.

After the war, Rudi found his mother and step-father still alive in Hamburg. They lived together for a time. They did their best to pick up the pieces of their lives. Rudi met a young woman that he decided to marry but before he could do that, he was called on a church mission to another part of the country. He felt like that service to the Lord helped him to get over the post traumatic stress that he and many other soldiers and prisoners were suffering. After his mission, he came home, married, and began working successfully in an electric motor company. In 1953, he and his little family were able to immigrate to America. During that first decade in America, he avoided thinking about the war as much as possible but in 1961, a journalist for the Deseret News approached him and asked if he would discuss his arrest and imprisonment. After the story was published, he was asked to speak in several firesides. He wrote, "I discovered that bringing my experiences out into the open made it easier to deal with the memories. It also gave me a chance to share with people the ideals and beliefs that motivated Helmuth to lead us into the Resistance. In time I would deliver my message to hundreds of audiences, There seemed to be a real interest on the part of Americans to learn about life under the Nazis."

As for Karl-Heinz, he was drafted into military service shortly before the end of the war. He was captured by the Russians and spent several years in a prison camp in Siberia. He later immigrated to America as well. In 1976, their experience was turned into a play at BYU called "Huebener". The play ran for two weeks and Rudi received several phone calls where he would hear a voice calling him a traitor. Apparently there were still some Nazi die-hards alive and well, residing in Utah of all places. 

In 1985, Rudi and Karl-Heinz were invited to the city of Hamburg to be guests of honor at the memorial service being held for Helmuth Huebener, on what would have been his 60th birthday. It was a great experience for them both, however they found some of the tours of the prison camps that they had once suffered in, somewhat depressing, especially the place where Helmuth had been executed. 

One of the last things Rudi wrote in his book was a quote from President Ezra Taft Benson, "I say to you with all the fervor of my soul that God intended for all men to be free. Rebellion against tyranny is a righteous cause." This makes me wonder how things will go in the US in the future. I know the things that we tolerate now from our government, probably wouldn't have been tolerated 50 years ago, and definitely not 150 years ago. But the heat has been turned up very slowly and most of us haven't noticed. Or maybe we would rather have Big Brother look after us, than be free.

In 1989, Rudi began working on a manuscript with Ghost writer Jerry Borrowman. Sometime mid-year in 1991 he contracted cancer. On January 31, 1992, one week after signing a publishing agreement, he passed away. 

Until next time ;o)