The Boy Who Dared is a young adult novel, written by award-winning children’s author Susan Campbell Bartoletti and published in 2008. The Boy Who Dared is a historical fiction novel based on the real life of Helmuth Hübener, a German boy who defied the Nazis during WWII. Alternating between his last day on death row and his memories, Helmuth’s story depicts the danger of silence, the value of the individual, and the power of the media and propaganda.

The Boy Who Dared won several awards including the 2009 ALA Best Book for Young Adults. This guide uses the 2008 edition from Scholastic Press.

Plot Summary

Helmuth Hübener is a seventeen-year-old German boy from Hamburg who is imprisoned on death row. The novel alternates between the last day before his execution and memories of his life. His memories reveal how he ended up on death row and how Hitler rose to power. For clarity, this summary will follow Helmuth’s memories chronologically and then describe his last day.

In Helmuth’s first memory, he is three and admires the Nazis’ uniforms and boots. He wants to be a brave soldier too someday. At age seven, he discusses the limitless nature of God and heaven with his brother, Gerhard. The concepts of God and heaven make Helmuth feel like he is floating. At eight, Hitler becomes chancellor, and Helmuth hears many anti-Semitic comments that he does not fully understand. He thinks Hitler is brave and likeable, and he feels proud of being German.

After the Communists are blamed for a fire at the parliament building, Brother Worbs, an elderly Mormon friend of Helmuth’s family, warns that Germans are losing their free speech. Prejudice against Jewish individuals increases as Hitler calls Germans to ban Jewish shops. Hitler blames Jewish people for Germany’s economic problems, even though Germany’s poverty mostly stems from the Treaty of Versailles after WWI. Hitler then bans non-German books.

When he is 10, Helmuth’s mom, Mutti, marries Hugo, a cruel Nazi whom Helmuth hates. Hitler creates the People’s Receiver, a radio that only receives German stations, and makes it illegal to listen to foreign radio stations. This limits the German people’s ability to access unbiased news reports and exposes them to pro-Nazi propaganda. At school, Helmuth’s teachers indoctrinate the students with more propaganda, and Helmuth is forced to join the Hitler Youth. Because of Hugo and the wrongdoings Helmuth witnesses, he turns against the Nazis’ beliefs. He hates what he and his fellow Germans have become by allowing the Nazis to act unchecked. After he and his friend Rudi work as amateur detectives and accuse a man, Franz Seeman, of murder, Helmuth is full of guilt, thinking the police arrested Seeman without any real evidence. He sees the way the Nazis are quick to punish anyone simply based on an accusation. Helmuth detests that he and others are silent about what the Nazis are doing, letting it continue.

As Hitler takes over more of Europe, Helmuth grows increasingly angry about what is happening in Germany. Gerhard is sent to France for the Reich Labor Service, and when he returns, he brings a contraband radio that can access outside stations. He warns Helmuth not to use it, but when Gerhard leaves for basic training, Helmuth listens in secret. He finds a BBC broadcast in German, and discovers all the lies the German government station, the RRG, has been telling. He begins an apprenticeship at City Hall and finds many banned books in the basement, including Geist und Tat (Spirit and Action) by Nazi critic Heinrich Mann. The book, along with the BBC broadcasts, give Helmuth an urgent desire to reveal Hitler’s lies to the German people. He grows increasingly depressed, not knowing how to do this.  

Hitler invades Russia, a historically unwise move, and Helmuth secretly plays the BBC for his best friends, Karl and Rudi. One night, Karl teases Helmuth for ranting against the Nazis so much that he sounds like a pamphlet, which inspires Helmuth to start a pamphlet campaign. His pamphlets reveal Hitler’s lies and the truth about the events of the war. Karl and Rudi are shocked when Helmuth shares his writings with them, but they agree to help him distribute the pamphlets around Hamburg under the darkness and anonymity of night. The boys promise each other that if one of them is caught by the Gestapo, he will not name his friends.

Helmuth writes new pamphlets twice a week and the boys work hard scattering them around the city. When America joins the war against Germany and Helmuth sees Brother Worbs mutilated after returning from a concentration camp, Helmuth feels compelled to intensify his campaign. He recruits a coworker, Düwer, to help him, but makes a fatal mistake when he tries to recruit his coworker Werner. Werner and their boss Herr Mohns turn Helmuth in for treason, and Helmuth and Düwer are arrested by the Gestapo. The Gestapo interrogate and torture the boys. Düwer gives into the pain and implicates Helmuth. Helmuth survives the first day without mentioning Rudi or Karl, but on the second day the Gestapo torture the names out of him. Helmuth is devastated that Rudi and Karl are arrested too, and he decides he will make things right. At their trial months later, Helmuth intentionally angers the justices to ensure he receives the worst punishment. He is sentenced to death, while his friends are saved and sentenced to several years in jail.

These memories play through Helmuth’s mind on his last day alive. His day begins with fear, not knowing whether it will be his final day; prisoners are not told their execution date. Fear turns to terror when he learns that he will be executed that evening, but by praying and feeling God’s presence, he soon feels at peace. He does not regret what he did and knows his life was important. His last request is to write letters home. He walks to his execution calmly and bravely, remembering the night when he first felt he was floating toward heaven, and he feels that way again.