The Boy Who Dared

The Boy Who Dared is about a boy named Helmuth Hübener and memories he’s having about his past life. The story starts on a Tuesday in his cell where he’s being held to be executed. While he’s in there he remembers times of his childhood like when he was questioning heaven and felt like he could float. He then starts remembering events that led up to him being trapped in a cell waiting to die. He remembers how when he was younger he longed to joining the Hitler Youth, but as he got older he realized that everything the Nazis were doing was wrong and he despised that. He remembers his adoptive father, Hugo, who was an SS officer and talked a lot about the Fuhrer. He remembers how he didn’t accept the ways of the Nazis so he started to go against them making pamphlet with his friends Karl-Heinz, Schnibbe, Rudolf Wobbe, and Gerhard Düwer. He ended up getting arrested for such actions and after being told that they could drop the execution Helmuth wanted to take responsibility for his actions and went to the execution. At this point the memories and the present time line up and that is when he is to be executed and...he's beheaded.

In the beginning of the book when Helmuth was a little cutie, he used to look up to the Fuhrer, Hitler, and he used to dream about becoming a brave soldier to fight for his country. He loved to play with little toy soldiers who were fighting the british, and he was quite the intelligent boy so what he did in the game were real strategies. As he grew up he became even smarter and started to realize that what was being done was wrong. He got in trouble at school for speaking his mind. He got in trouble with the police for speaking his mind, he got in trouble to the point where Nazis put an end to him. He didn't agree with the way of Hitler by the end of it even though he lived with people who did. He listened to BBC and, with his friends, tried to spread the word. If you ask me, I think 9 year old Helmuth wouldn't like 16 year old Helmuth.