Just as the Nazis are rising to power, Helmut Hubener, a German schoolboy, is caught up in all the swachbuckling bravado of his time.
The handsome storm trooper uniforms, the shiny jackboots and armbands, the rousing patriotism - all serve to draw him into this bright new world full of promise and hope.
In the beginning, Helmuth's patriotism is unwavering. But every day the rights of people all over Germany are diminishing. Jews are threatened and their businesses are being destroyed, the truth has been censored, and danger lurks everywhere. Anybody can turn on you. The world has turned upside down: Patriotism means denouncing others, love means to hate, and speaking out means treason. Silence becomes everyone's guilty secret. How much longer can Helmuth keep silent?
Death Row
Plotzensee Prison
Berlin, Germany
October 27, 1942
It is Day 264
Now Helmuth sits in a German prison, awaiting his precarious fate. Told in flashback with breathtaking suspense, this homage to an extraordinary real life hero magnificently explores one person's responsibility to humanity, freedom, and truth.
Death Row
Plotzensee Prison
Berlin, Germany
October 27, 1942
It is Day 264
Now Helmuth sits in a German prison, awaiting his precarious fate. Told in flashback with breathtaking suspense, this homage to an extraordinary real life hero magnificently explores one person's responsibility to humanity, freedom, and truth.
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| " Helmuth Hubener was a real person and his character is based on extensive research-all filtered through my imagination in order to create a dramatic meditation on what Helmuth, his family, and friend lived through." - Susan Campbell Bartoletti |
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Lexile Measure®: 760L
DRA: 60
Guided Reading: Y
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