This chilling, true story of four courageous teenagers who defied the Nazis includes the documents of an orderly and law-abiding nation condemning the conscience of its children. The four were arrested, interrogated, tortured, and tried by the "People's Court," and their sixteen-year-old leader, Helmuth Hübener, was beheaded, the youngest resistance figure sentenced to execution by that court. The exhaustive documentation gathered here for the first time is the result of twenty years of research in Germany and the United States. 

Based on a first-person account by one of the surviving conspirators, Karl-HeinzSchnibbe, a working-class son of the city of Hamburg, When Truth Was Treason is a vivid chronicle of courage. The Hübener group's actions were undertaken without any adult participation and predated the famous White Rose group by more than a year. This inspiring story is moving, unique, and unforgettable. It shows civilization at its worst—and four young, courageous teenagers at humankind's best.