For those alarmed by today’s rhetoric, film about anti-Nazi resister is a cautionary tale
Film review: ‘Truth & Treason’ by Matt Whitaker, ★★★✯☆
Set in the early days of World War II in Nazi Germany, the new Angel Studios film Truth & Treason has its share of shocking, brutal scenes1. But one of its most shocking scenes, which takes place near the beginning of a church worship service in Hamburg, isn’t brutal at all, at least not physically: Dozens of people dressed in their Sunday best to worship the Prince of Peace follow the lead of their local bishop in a Nazi salute with a shout of “Heil Hitler!”
I don’t know if the Nazi salute was practiced in that way at congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1941 as pictured2, but the scene was instantly effective in conveying the moral conflict at the heart of the story, which focuses on the last year of the life of Helmuth Hübener, a member of the congregation. As a teenager, Hübener mounted a small-scale, low-tech resistance campaign against the Hitler regime. His campaign led to his execution at a Nazi prison, making him the youngest person sentenced to death by the so-called People’s Court for anti-Nazi resistance activities.
As shocking as today’s viewers will find the salute during a worship service, it wouldn’t have seemed shocking to those who were there.
And I couldn’t help help but make a comparison with the distinctly Christian memorial service held last month for conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Among all the prayers, all the Christian testimonies, all the hymns, all the praise for Jesus, there was at least one sermon that was as shockingly out of place as the Heil Hitler was at movie’s Hamburg church service. This was a service designed not only to honor Kirk but to honor Jesus Christ, yet the dark eulogy by Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller included a line speaking to Trump’s adversaries like this:
You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred, you are nothing.
It was a line that belonged at a Christian religious service no more than a Hitler salute. As I listened to Miller’s eulogy, I found it disturbing, in part for its rhetorical similarities to speeches by Hitler propagandist Joseph Goebbels — but, as far as I could tell, Miller’s speech was not shocking to those in attendance.
And an appearance by Trump himself a short while later wasn’t much better. Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, had just given her own eulogy, one in which said she was forgiving her husband’s killer because that’s what Jesus would do. As the next speaker, Trump undermined everything Mrs. Kirk had just said by proclaiming he doesn’t believe in forgiveness but does believe in hate. Yes, he minced no words in proclaiming that. And yet he received laughter and applause for his declaration.
In any normal world, Trump’s eulogy would have been shocking. But the crowd in attendance willingly complied with what was expected of them, which was to applaud Trump, just as the congregants in the Hübener film did what was expected of them.
As I write this, I’m fully aware of Godwin’s Law, the adage that warns of bringing Hitler into online conversations, as doing so is often a sure way to terminate rational discussion. But it is a comparison I feel compelled to make — the darkly defiant rhetoric of Miller and Trump at the Kirk worship service was just as out of place as the Hitler salute in the film’s worship service.
I could see no signs that Truth & Treason was produced in a way intended to elicit comparisons with the current political situation. After all, Angel Studios, which had its start as a service that removed sex, nudity, violence and offensive language from Hollywood fare, has American evangelicals as its primary target audience. Its most successful film to date was 2023’s Sound of Freedom glorifying anti-child-trafficking activist Tim Ballard, at the time a hero of the religious right.
Certainly, left-leaning film producers telling Hübener’s story would have been blatant in drawing out Hitler-Trump comparisons, but this film does not do that. As a result, we see few signs of authoritarian rule beyond scenes of police and young Nazis roughing up those who weren’t toeing the line. What we do see are Hübener and his young colleagues drawing inspiration from the same teachings of Jesus, such as those involving love of neighbor, that inspire today’s Christian critics of Trumpism. And we wonder how the young Helmuth could belong to the same religion as his bishop.
The film doesn’t always make a clear tie between Hübener’s religious belief and his political defiance, which seems to be largely based on fears related to the falsehood of German propaganda of impending victory over the rest of the world. In other words, Hübener’s activities, which involved printing and distributing fliers, made more of a pragmatic argument against the Hitler regime than a moral one. This is consistent with the historical record.
For those who already see the current U.S. regime as being an example of truth being upended, Truth & Treason will serve as a cautionary tale. Whether those who, like Hübener’s ecclesiastical leader, are blinded to the truth and somehow find a way to reconcile political support for cruelty with the teachings of Christ, will see the film as a warning remains to be seen.
In keeping with Angel Studios’ mission of producing wholesome entertainment, the violence in Truth & Treason is impactful but not particularly graphic. The film is not suitable, however, for young children. It is rated PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images, thematic elements and smoking.
Historical records suggest that that the bishop of the film, who in real life had the title of branch president, was an outlier among German Latter-day Saints in being an open Nazi leader. The LDS church as a denomination in Germany was officially neutral as to German politics and so did not oppose the Nazi regime. World War II-era documents suggest that German officials at the time were suspicious of the church, partly for being based in the United States, but did not persecute its members as they did with members of some other churches, especially Jehovah’s Witnesses.