It has become increasingly difficult to accept modern films or biographies at face value, especially those described as based on true stories. Narratives are often shaped to fit ideology, belief systems, or cultural agendas. Still, I felt compelled to watch a Holocaust film titled Truth & Treason, which tells the story of Helmuth Hübener, a sixteen year old Mormon from Hamburg, Germany during the rise of Nazi rule.
At sixteen years old, Helmuth stood against tyranny. His weapons were not guns or bombs, but a typewriter, ink, paper, banned radio broadcasts, and forbidden books. His life ultimately became defined by two moments: daring to make a difference and paying the ultimate price for that difference. He was sentenced to death by guillotine. A child executed for distributing truth. It is difficult to imagine a nation killing a teenager for challenging propaganda, but then I remember Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Carol McNair, and Emmett Till. Black children murdered by hatred and racial terror. Evil is not confined to one nation or one era. It resurfaces wherever power aligns itself with prejudice.
One of the most sobering elements of the film is the quiet complicity of the Church in Hitler’s rise. In one scene, Helmuth and a friend approach their Mormon church only to find a sign that reads, No Jews Allowed. Regardless of theological differences, the deeper issue is not denominational doctrine. It is the essence of what a church is supposed to represent. A place of worship. A sanctuary. A space where those seeking God through Jesus Christ should be welcomed, hear the Gospel, understand repentance, and pursue transformation. Yet history reminds us that the Black Church in America exists because Black believers were excluded from white congregations. The same hymns were sung, but not necessarily to the same Lord. Segregation, redlining, zip codes, and economic divestment ensured that worship remained divided along racial lines.
Imagine taking your family to church and being told no Blacks allowed. No Jews allowed. No Italians allowed. Imagine sitting beside your best friend in worship one Sunday, only to see them dragged away to a concentration camp, lynched, burned, or gassed by people who claim to serve the Lord. What does it mean when ethnicity, race, or demographic identity becomes grounds for exclusion from the house of God?
This is why the film feels relevant today. We are standing at what appears to be a societal inflection point in America. Political identity has become intertwined with spiritual identity. In many spaces, everything Democratic is labeled demonic and everything Republican is labeled righteous. Conservatism does not equal righteousness. When political loyalty replaces moral clarity, we enter dangerous territory. History shows that demagogues are not sustained by vision alone. They are sustained by silence and support from those who know better.
Campaigns today are built more on popularity than truth. Moral consistency is rare. Violence can be justified when it aligns with ideology. Injustice can be ignored when it benefits one’s political tribe. Nationalism begins to masquerade as faith. This is what makes Truth & Treason so powerful. Nazi Germany did not collapse simply because one man had dictatorial ambition. It collapsed because institutions, including religious institutions, either supported him or remained silent. A dictator’s ambition is dangerous, but the greater danger is the crowd that sanctifies him.
We live in a moment where individuals can express hostility toward immigrants, the LGBTQ community, or racial minorities and still receive unwavering support in the name of righteousness. How does hatred coexist with holiness? And at the same time protect those who are covering up Epstein Files and protecting those who have raped young people? How does this reflect the Gospel? It does not. The film reminded me that there is a thin line between the right to protest, the right to disagree, and the moral responsibility to resist injustice. Helmuth understood that distributing truth in a culture built on propaganda would cost him everything. Standing for good always costs.
Nazi Germany failed because evil cannot sustain itself indefinitely. In the long arc of history, corruption collapses under its own weight. The question is not whether history will judge us. The question is whether we will do the work now to research, document, speak, and advocate for the vulnerable rather than elevate strongmen.
We are often told that the greatest threats to America are foreign adversaries or outside ideologies. I believe the greater threat is silence over truth, complicity over advocacy, and fear over courage. When a nation begins alienating itself morally from the world, when empathy shrinks and unchecked power expands, it does not become great. It decays. Freedom cannot be selective. Democracy cannot be partisan. Faith cannot be weaponized. If it is then it quickly becomes despotism.
Helmuth Hübener understood something at sixteen that many adults forget. Truth requires courage. Without courage, truth is labeled treason. Without truth, treason becomes normal. That is how nations fall.
