The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News both noted yesterday the passing of an old gentleman named Karl-Heinz Schnibbe. He was a Mormon who emigrated to Utah after World War II. The fact that he passed peacefully and at the ripe old age of 86 is really quite remarkable, considering his early years. He was one of a group of young LDS boys living in Germany who opposed Hitler. Not only did they disagree with the Nazis privately, but they actively disagreed, distributing anti-Nazi propaganda. Eventually they were caught by the gestapo, tried for sedition and treason, and convicted. For their efforts, one of them, a young man named Helmuth Huebner, was executed. Karl and another friend spent the rest of the war in forced labor camps. Both survived and after seven years in various camps, Karl emerged weighing less than 100 pounds.
Eventually they both ended up moving to Utah, and lived quiet lives. Thirty years later, someone learned of their story, and they spent their last years telling it. It was later turned in to a play that is put on regularly at BYU and elsewhere, as well as a documentary that is shown regularly on KBYU.
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