Original subtitles

He's a stubborn one.

Take it off.

I'm sorry.

Who's the book for?

Me.

What, you like Shakespeare?

Get up.

Now why should you take all the blame? You just the paperboy.

Who's writing these?

I am.

"Indeed the nefarious plan of the Führer

to attack the Soviet Union,

contrary to all agreements

and in spite of the non-aggression pact..."

You wrote this?

Here. Let me hear you read this. I wanna hear you read it.

...if you can.

"Just as tendentious and illusionary

is the Hitler propaganda campaign"--

Speak up.

"...But Hitler and his accomplices know

they must deprive you of your free will,

in order to make submissive,

spineless creatures out of you..."

"...For Hitler knows that we are beginning to see through him."

"...the suppressor of free nations.

The murderer of millions."

They found this at his grandmother's house.

Where he was living.

It's a half-finished leaflet.

How old is he?

He's 17.

- What? - He's been arrested.

I knew this would happen.

I... I... I have a cousin, Basel, we could leave now,

we could go to Switzerland.

And then what?

We run... you know what they'll do to our parents?

To everyone?

What are they doing to Helmuth?

He'll outsmart them.

You know Helmuth.

He'll keep his promise.

What do I tell my parents?

We lie.

Don't tell them anything.

It's gonna be alright.

You can sit down.

Sit down.

You wrote them all by yourself, didn't you?

Yes.

Your birthday is January the 8th.

It's mine as well. January the 8th, 1902.

I'm an old man.

For the past nine months,

I've been looking for a professor of German literature, or world history.

And this whole time it was you.

A boy.

We were rough on you. Well, we don't need that anymore, do we?

Alright.

We'll talk tomorrow.

Try and get some rest.

Get up!

It's in school today...

For homework we were supposed to write about Adolf Hitler.

But Hensey didn't do it.

So right before class he hid in the wardrobe, way in the back.

Did teacher notice?

Yeah, she walked over

and knocked on the door and said,

"Hensey, are you in there? Or are you somewhere else?"

But then Hensey said,

"I can't be in two places at the same time, can I?"

That is funny.

I want to go and see him.

I know.

I don't think you should.

They don't have to let you in.

And they don't have to let you out either.

Before the opening prayer,

I need to inform you that one of our members has been arrested.

Helmuth Kunkle was taken into custody by state police on Thursday.

It must be stated that his treasonous actions are inexcusable.

He has not only violated the law,

but he has broken the Lord's commandments

and betrayed his faith.

Helmuth Kunkle is therefore excommunicated.

His name has officially been removed from the records of this church.

Please Father,

I need your help.

give me strength...

You wrote a poem about Goebbels.

"Porozio stands at the microphone,

entirely unable to bring forth a tone."

How am I going--

Oh, that's not Shakespeare.

Yeah, a little joke here too.

Lets see, Goebbels recently purchased a massive flock of sheep, why?

so he could keep pulling the wool over our eyes.

You know any more?

The Führer wants peace...

A piece of Poland. A piece of Czechoslovakia.

A piece of France.

No?

A friend of mine suffers from schizophrenia.

Has delusions that he's either

Adolf Hitler or Winston Churchill.

He's his own worst enemy.

Yeah...

You know, my colleauges think that you had help

putting out these leaflets.

Did you?

There is no one else.

You know, I'm not sure there were others.

There's always others.

Why don't you hold off for today.

And let me keep working on him.

You keep working your way, I'll keep working my way.

We'll see who wins.

I mean it, let's just hold off for a bit.

Nah, this'll be quick.

I said hold off!

Fine.

What's your teacher's name again?

Mr. Müeller.

Hmm.

So did your friend,

the one who can't be in two places at the same time--

Hensey?

Yeah, Hensey.

He's not still in that wardrobe, is he?

Good, I was worried about that.

What?

I'm sorry.

I need you to do something for me.

Why?

Why?

Because... because they took my friend.

Salomon. Salomon Schwarz.

Because of a Jew?

Yes... and the truth.

The truth...

Then explain this truth to me:

How does one person cover all of Hamburg in a single night?

How do I post these in Hammerbrook, and in Altona,

and up in Eilbeck... all in a single night.

How do I do that?

I can't be two places at the same time, now, can I?

I know someone's been helping you.

Who were they?

No one.

- There’s no-- - No, no, mhmmmm.

The Truth.

The truth?

If we don’t stop Hitler, he will destroy Germany.

No one is safe.

Not you. Not your family...

No one.

Who was with you?

No one.

Who was with you?

No one.

Who was with you?

No one.

Your mother, your stepfather.

We met with them...

Now he’s a good Party member and your mother, she's supportive,

doubt she’d be involved in any of this...

But you never know.

May have to bring her back in, just to be sure.

Still no one?

She doesn’t know anything!

I wouldn’t have suspected her

but then we found this in her things.

You like opera?

It's typed on your typewriter.

With your signature.

She doesn't know anything.

Oh you’re probably right...

But Julius is going to find out, I can promise you that.

You don’t have to tell me who’s been helping you.

Just write down their names.

It's alright.

Doesn't have to be perfect.

It's devastating, isn't it?

So committed to a cause, only to realize

you've hurt those you love the most...

You were right.

No one is safe.

But you knew that.

And did it anyway.

Send the girl home.

What are you looking at?

What happened there?

We got a letter from Gerhard.

Is he alright?

He's fine.

He says he should be home by summer...

and, you know, that's what the papers say too.

Things are going well in Russia.

Karl and Rudi?

Not good.

August 11th.

The Führer's High Court.

They've already transferred him to prison in Berlin

with Rudy and Karl.

They'll all go on trial there.

August 11th.

So, um, I've been...

Sit up. Sit him up!

In court tomorrow, you'll be in a suit and tie.

Hair combed back, looking presentable. And...

you’ll read this.

Out loud. Let's hear it.

I, Helmuth...

Hübener...

express my...

My last name isn't Hübener, it's Kunkle.

No, no, it's Hübener now.

You've been officially adopted by your stepfather.

Hugo Hübener.

Well, having his last name can only help at this point.

A decorated Lance Corporal?

Well, that's... that's why I put it in there.

Well, go on.

I, Helmuth Hübener

express my deepest regrets

for the malicious acts of treason I have com-

You'll have to be more convincing than that

if you want any leniency from a judge like Karl Engert.

Little secret.

I've had a nice chat with the judge.

He doesn't want to see this come to the worst

any more than I do as your attorney.

This is your life we're talking about.

This is treason.

You’re barely seventeen.

Now, Karl on the other hand, Herr Schnibbe, he's eighteen.

An adult.

And a known trouble-maker,

assaulting Hitler Youth leaders and what not.

You read this statement in court.

Put your heart into it.

Save your skin

and let Karl-Heinz take what's coming.

Now let's try it again, shall we?

Hmm? From the top.

All rise.

The Honorable Head Judge Karl Engert,

Chairman of the Second Senate of the People’s Court,

representing our Führer, Adolf Hitler,

in the case against Helmuth Hübener,

Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudolf Wobbe.

Heil Hitler.

Heil Hitler.

The accusations laid before the court are:

preparation to high treason,

aiding and abetting the enemy in time of war,

listening to illegal foreign broadcasts,

and the publishing and distribution

of seditious material.

The accused stand before you now,

on this day, the eleventh of August, 1942.

Sit down.

Read it with feeling.

These are leaflets that were written

and distributed by the defendants.

On a typewriter stolen from their church, the...

hmm, Mormons. That's interesting.

So religious...

and yet, here you are, accused of committing high treason.

I find that ironic.

Well.

My intent is to determine who actually instigated this group,

and whether the ring leader wasn’t indeed

the adult of the group, Herr Schnibbe.

For the benefit of the court,

we will read from the treasonous leaflets

that were admittedly distributed

by Herr Schnibbe and his two cohorts.

Let's see.

Found in Hammerbrook, Hamburg, April 30, 1941.

Do you know the country without freedom?

The country of terror and tyranny?

Yes, you know it well but are afraid to talk about it.

It is Germany.

Hitler is to blame that hundreds

of thousands wait in vain for their husbands.

Do you want to tolerate having the

happiness of your life taken from you

and your children cheated out of the

most beautiful years of their lives?

Do you want to tolerate this?

We can still rescue our country from

the abyss to which Hitler has led us.

Make your decision before it's too late.

Well, I think we've heard more than enough of that.

We now call to the stand

Criminal Secretary Erwin Müssener

with the Secret State Police, Hamburg.

How many of these leaflets were distributed?

There were twenty-nine separate leaflets

that either we found or were turned in.

Multiple copies of many of them.

But we don't know exactly how many others remain uncollected.

You believe there were more?

Yes.

A number?

We don’t know. Possibly many more.

I will say that the content of these leaflets

was extremely well written.

Very persuasive.

None of us were expecting to find a sixteen year old.

Persuasive?

You're saying that the words of a 16-year-old boy

could sway the German people?

I’m saying, they were well written.

I was looking for a university professor, someone older.

But we have someone older right here:

Herr Schnibbe. Karl-Heinz.

Karl-Heinz Schnibbe

was not the author of the leaflets.

We found the typewriter, we know it was used by--

But isn't it likely that this young man was influenced,

perhaps persuaded by his older friend?

Herr Schnibbe, a known troublemaker?

Isn’t that possible?

Kommissar?

I don't know.

Excuse me?

- I don't know. - You don't know?

I asked if it’s possible-

Of course it's possible.

That will be all.

Your honor.

My client has prepared a written confession

which demonstrates very clearly

that he was bullied into this "resistance group"

by his older friend, here, Herr Schnibbe

Bring him forward.

I, Helmuth Hübener,

express my deepest regrets...

...I express my deepest regrets...

that Germany has followed a lunatic

into a war she cannot win.

No, no, no, no. This is a court of law.

The accused is free to speak.

Ah, that's quite the statement.

Do you really believe that Germany will lose this war?

Absolutely.

Don't you?

And yet, it was only a year ago when you wrote,

"Never before has Germany been more homeland to us

than it is now, in this Athenian age,

the dawn of the National-Socialistic millennium.

And how did we arrive at this great juncture in history?”

On the backs of the conquered.

That’s how we arrived here.

The power of this Reich is mired in the blood of the innocent.

In Poland, in France.

Germany's future lies frozen and dead on the steppes of Russia

so Hitler can have his living space.

Ah yes, the Allies are up in arms about our living space,

aren't they?

Have you never heard of British ‘Imperialism’,

or what the Americans call their ‘Manifest Destiny’?

Hmm?

They’re hypocrites!

It’s exactly the same expansionism

that our Führer has achieved!

What did you think, boy?

You would write some little leaflet and overthrow the Reich?

I thought...

I would write the Truth...

and let it overthrow the Reich.

The Reich doesn't fear your little papers.

Then why are we here?

It has become so convenient to accuse the victor.

It’s the very reason Aristotle said that in the time of war,

truth is the first to go.

You mean Aeschylus.

"In war, truth is the first casualty."

He was right.

Hitler says whatever he can to cover the truth:

That his thirst for power has cost millions of lives!

Millions of lives. Every German knows

that we're winning this war.

You only know what Goebbels wants you to know!

I know that in my court you will address me with respect!

Your court? Or Hitler's court?

My court! The Führer's court! The German people's court!

The people deserve the truth!

- Hitler will stop at nothing! - Truth is loyalty to the Führer—

He will send Germany into the fires

Shut your mouth! Sit him down!

...in order to finish the crimes he has started!

The people deserve the tru-

Not his face!

- Expose him for what he is: - Shut him up! Shut up!

a reckless mass murder-agh!

This court is in recess. Sentencing will follow.

All rise.

In the case against Helmuth Hübener,

Karl-Heinz Schnibbe

and Rudolf Wobbe,

the court pronounces all three guilty of high treason,

and of aiding and abetting the enemy in time of war.

Rudolf Wobbe.

You are hereby sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Karl-Heinz Schnibbe.

You are hereby sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

Helmuth Hübener.

For your crimes against the Reich...

the sentence is death...

by beheading.

Any final words from the defendants?

Yes...

I am guilty of no crime at all.

I will die, having done nothing wrong...

But your time will come.

The judge will be judged and truth will prevail.

Rudolf Wobbe. Karl-Heinz Schnibbe.

Come.

You stay.

One moment. Please.

One day,...

this will end.

You will live...

to have a better life...

in a better Germany.

We did what we could.

Remember me.

You should know,

this was filed on your behalf.

Clemency?

It was denied.

Thank you.

Will you deliver this for me?

Please?

I was asked to give this to you.

Mother,

By the time you read this, I will be gone.

I'm not afraid to die.

My deepest regret is the pain I have brought to those I love.

I pray God will protect them and bring them home.

Father in Heaven knows I have done nothing wrong.

He will be the proper judge of this matter...

Mother, you always taught me to believe in a better world.

And this is where my final hopes lie.

Please remember me kindly.

and I love you.

And that we'll see each other again

in that better world.