Truth & Treason Parent Guide

It’s 1941 and Helmuth Hübener is living a reasonably good life in Germany despite the ongoing war. Helmuth and his friends explore the countryside on their bikes, dodge the bullies in their Hitler Youth group, and listen to jazz on a (very illegal) shortwave radio. Helmuth has even landed a job as the youngest intern ever hired at Hamburg city hall. But not even this bright, articulate 16-year-old can escape the horrors of the Third Reich forever. And when they hit home, Helmuth decides that he must do his part. He’s going to “write the truth and let it overthrow the Reich.”

To make his goal a reality, Helmuth composes small handbills and much longer articles, some of which he copies late at night on a church mimeograph machine. Needing help to distribute his writings, Helmuth ropes in his best friends, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (Ferdinand McKay) and Rudi Wobbe (Daf Thomas), to stuff local mailboxes and cover bulletin boards and car windshields. Of course, this activity doesn’t go unnoticed and soon SS officer Erwin Mussener (Rupert Evans) is on the hunt for the author of the pamphlets.….

Based on a true story, Truth & Treason is a devastating film to watch. Not just for the cruelty of the Nazi regime – there are no surprises in the scenes of torture and brutality, although they are painful to watch. The other gut-wrenching part of the tale is the assault on Helmuth’s faith by the pro-Nazi sympathies of his Latter-day Saint (Mormon) bishop. Having been raised on a Latter-day Saint gospel stressing the love of God and one’s fellow man, Helmuth is shocked when his bishop gives a Hitler salute in church, bans Jews from the building, parrots Nazi dogma, and urges obedience to Nazi law. Faced with this incongruence, Helmuth draws on the roots of his faith and explains to his friends that he’s following the guidance of a hymn, “Do what is right; let the consequence follow.”

I won’t lie to you – those consequences are excruciating. The only significant negative content issue in this film is violence and there is plenty of it. People are beaten, abducted, threatened, and tortured. The violence is not gratuitous; indeed, the filmmakers deserve credit for showing the bare minimum necessary to tell the story, but there are still multiple, agonizing, bloody scenes. I went through a fair bit of antacid watching the movie because I found it so stressful and emotionally draining to watch.

Given that experience, you might wonder if I recommend the film. I absolutely do. Truth & Treason is exactly the type of movie teenagers need to see: Helmuth’s example of integrity, faith, and courage, and his love of truth bring heroism out of the world of spandex-clad supers and into a gritty reality of hard choices, pain, and loss. And, although this is a film for mass audiences, it also has extra resonance for Christians for whom Helmuth’s example brings an existential choice into sharp relief: allying with worldly powers or living (and maybe dying) for a faith focused on love for their fellow man.

The complexities of the story are brilliantly brought to life by its talented cast. Ewan Horrocks brings purity of conviction, depth, courage, and intelligence to his portrayal of Helmuth. Even Rupert Evans, as obsessive SS officer Erwin Mussener manages to provide nuance and give us more than a Nazi monster. The production quality is excellent and this is a polished, teen-friendly film that is worth watching for mass audiences.

As Helmuth quoted the line from “Do what is right” to explain his choices, his life brings lines from another hymn to my mind. “Like the great and good in story, If we fail, we fail with glory. God speed the right.” Hopefully this movie will motivate more of us to follow Helmuth’s example and choose the harder right over the easy wrong.

About author

Kirsten Hawkes

Kirsten Hawkes has a BA in Political Science and English and has worked in international development and medical education and marketing. Kirsten enjoys reading, watching movies, and debating politics with her husband and sometimes unwilling children.