My Choice: "The Boy Who Dared" - Fictionalized Biography

Title: The Boy Who Dared

Author: Bartoletti, Susan Campbell

Author Website: http://www.scbartoletti.com/

Publisher: Scholastic: (2008)

Awards:

YALSA -Best Books for Young Adults 2009
Book Links starred (2008)
Booklist starred (2008)

Plot Summary:

Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Historical Fictionalized Biography, "The Boy Who Dared" is the gut wrenching and inspirational story of a German youth growing up in the midst of Hitler's Nazi Regime. Helmuth Hubener was just a child when the Nazis started laying the groundwork for their evil regime in the mid to late 1930s. As we learn of Helmuth and his childhood and early teenage years, the narration effectively flashes forward providing short horrifying descriptions of his experience in the concentration camp; and then back again. By the early 1940s Helmuth was beginning to understand the world, its politics, and was far ahead of his time in realizing that the Nazi agenda was neither fair, friendly, nor did it promote freedom. His suspicions became solidified as he encountered Nazi supporters at school, and in his home as his mother (Mutti) began dating s a staunch Nazi supporter. Helmuth was however a very smart young man who was inquisitive and an avid reader. He became enraged when he was forced to join the "Hitler Youth", a society created to brainwash the minds of young German males and to recruit them into the Nazi mindset. Helmuth was not a good recruit as he had already learned to think and reason for himself.

Helmuth's grandparents (Opa and Oma) lived next door and Helmuth and his grandfather both quietly agreed to disagree with the Nazi party. The alignment of their beliefs gave Helmuth confidence in his own understanding that the freedom of Germans was not a priority of Hitler and the Nazis. Helmuth was infuriated as he saw the rights of the Jews taken away as the government had banned them from many public places, and made laws against doing business with Jews, calling them non-Germans. Helmuth became even more enraged when he learned that the Nazis banned and burned books from all non-German authors and blocked all foreign radio broadcasts offering alternative sources of information not filtered through the prism of the Nazi party.

Helmuth's older brother Gerhard was drafted into the army while Hans (the oldest brother) worked at the Naval shipyard constructing war vessels for the Hitler Regime. Now a teenager when Hitler lies about Polish troops firing upon German troops as an excuse to invade a weak Poland, Helmuth decides it is time for him to risk his life and liberty in search of the truth. Helmuth steals the shortwave radio that Gerhard had brought home when on leave from his military duties. Gerhard had given Helmuth specific instructions not to disobey the government laws by listening, and he locked the radio away in a closet. Helmuth obeyed the wishes of his brother, until his suspicionsof government conspiracy overpowered his will to remain quiet. One night Helmuth broke into the closet and tuned the radio into a British Broadcasting station. It was there that Helmuth tuned in every night. He eventually got his friends to listen too and they created leaflets to inform the public that the Nazis were lying to them about the war and their intentions. These heroic actions taken by a few teenage boys would eventually be discovered. Helmuth, only 17 years old in August 1942, was tried for treason and supporting the enemy. Unprecedented for a boy of that age, he was tried as an adult and did not deny his intentions to spread the truth. His honorable testimony lessened the sentences of his friends, as Helmuth was later guillotined at Plotzensee (a concentration camp). 2,200 others were also put to death in this, one of many, concentration facilities that were designed specifically to hold Jews and any outwardly anti-Nazi individuals.

My Reaction:

I really found this book to be enlightening. As difficult as it was to read of the atrocities committed by Nazi party from the personal perspective of a young boy, it was inspiring to read of his suspicions and willingness to stand bravely in opposition to what he knew was wrong. The historical information that Bartoletti provides to the reader is an entire course in history, apart from the personal narrative of Hulmuth and his family and friends. Additionally impressive is "The Author's note" section at the end of the narrative which provides further historical and personal information including a series of pictures of Hulmuth, his family and friends. Reminiscent of her lecture at Stivers High School for the Arts, Bartoletti's painstaking research is abundantly evident in the immense historical data comprised within this brilliant piece of literature. Thanks to authors and historians like Bartoletti, we can all be informed about history.

My Recommendation:

I would strongly recommend this book to any young adult reader. It is not inappropriately graphic or violent. It does however provide a first-hand account of the atrocities produced by the Hitler Regime. Students need to understand history and that Hitler repressed the rights and freedoms of all Germans, even those not of Jewish decent like Helmuth and his family. Students today often will read a paragraph or two in a textbook about the Holocaust, and be done with it. Bartoletti's book should be required reading for any history class whose content covers the World War II era. I have a signed copy in our library.

Book Talk Hook:

Imagine yourself in a position where your government was making laws that banned you from reading the books, magazines and newspapers, or listening to your favorite radio stations. Would you be upset? Would you want to know why? What would you do about it? A young German boy found himself in this exact situation during the World War II era. Find out what he did and what happened when you read The Boy Who Dared, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.