The Helmuth Hubener Story

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Joel
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The Helmuth Hubener Story

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notjamesbond003.5
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Re: The Helmuth Hubener Story

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He got railroaded by The Brethernites and Shadow.

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Joel
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gkearney
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Re: The Helmuth Hubener Story

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Suppressed? That seems rather strange given that I have published copies of said play in my bookshelf:

Huebener and other plays
by Thomas F. Rogers
Poor Roberts's Publications 1992
ISBN 0-9632618-0-0

Further the published version lists a contact for performance rights Encore Performance Publishing (801) 282-8159 IF they are trying to suppress this play they are doing a poor job of it.

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inho
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Re: The Helmuth Hubener Story

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gkearney wrote: December 26th, 2017, 3:26 pm Suppressed? That seems rather strange given that I have published copies of said play in my bookshelf:

Huebener and other plays
by Thomas F. Rogers
Poor Roberts's Publications 1992
ISBN 0-9632618-0-0

Further the published version lists a contact for performance rights Encore Performance Publishing (801) 282-8159 IF they are trying to suppress this play they are doing a poor job of it.
I guess he was referring to events that took place in 1970s. A lot can have changed since then.

My guess is that David Conley Nelson's source is the book Brigham Young University: A House of Faith by Gary James Bergera and Ronald Priddis, which tells about the supression in Chapter 8:
The day following Huebener‘s premiere, BYU trustee Thomas S. Monson telephoned President Dallin Oaks to inform him that Joseph B. Wirthlin, a member of the church’s First Quorum of the Seventy and area supervisor for Europe, was “disturbed” over the possible [p. 313] repercussions of the play. Wirthlin, who had not seen the production, called the play “foolish,” insisting that it “endangered the lives of all the Saints in [East] Germany.” Both Monson and Wirthlin asked pointedly, “Aren’t there subjects the `Y’ can use for plays that won’t endanger the work [we are] trying to do here?” Monson continued, “What if a current Latter-day Saint tried to expose or publicly oppose their current communist leadership,” as Huebener had opposed National Socialism? Later, Wirthlin would add that the play could “arouse . . . [church] members to a more active opposition of their government than would be in the best interest of the expanding church” (quoted in Oaks to Woodbury, 11 Oct. 1976). Consequently, both church officials suggested that “under no circumstances should the script of the play or any plans to present it be sent to Europe.” Oaks dutifully agreed and shortly afterwards cautioned fine arts dean Lael Woodbury, “We need to be very sensitive because future plays could possibly cause this kind of problem or some other problem in other parts of the world.” Rogers was asked not to distribute copies of his script and to refuse requests to have it performed. “Who knows what was right or wrong then?” explained Monson nine years later in 1985. “I don’t know what we accomplish by dredging these things up and trying to sort them out.”

Unaware of the debate over the play at official levels, one undergraduate responded to the play’s critics when he wrote tongue-in-cheek, “I am disturbed at the attempt of the Department of Theater and Cinematic Arts to make of Helmuth Huebener a ’20th Century Mormon martyr.’ . . . Mormon martyrs must be selected from among those faithful German saints who obeyed church counsel . . . and did their duty in the East against Stalin, in the West against our brothers and fathers, and in Dachau and Buchenwald against humanity.” When the subject was raised in late October during a meeting of the executive committee of the Board of Trustees, committee members reiterated the criticisms voiced by Wirthlin and Monson “regarding plays or other matter relating to Iron Curtain countries [however well done] that could possibly be detrimental to the missionary work being undertaken in Europe.”

Rogers protested the administration’s request that he not release copies of the script. In a memo two weeks later to academic vice-president Robert K. Thomas, he wrote, “‘Huebener’ may be one of the few Mormon cultural products that, with its universal ethical implications, would communicate to those outside the church. . . . The stigma associated with its wholesale suppression might, on the other hand, have an adverse effect–suggesting that the play’s theme has perpetuated itself in its institutional handling.” Oaks, with Monson as his guest, attended Huebener before it closed. To George Winder, an enthusiastic theater patron who donated $1,000 to the university [p. 314] after attending Heubener, Oaks wrote that he found the play “excellent,” that it “deal[t] with a subject that tugs at our hearts and reminds us of the complexities of the life we live.” Still, the administrative restrictions on Rogers’s script remained in effect.

lundbaek
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Robin Hood
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Re: The Helmuth Hubener Story

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Prior to his execution, Hubener was excommunicated for his activities in resisting the Nazi's.
He has since been posthumously restored to church membership.

Vision
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Re: The Helmuth Hubener Story

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Robin Hood wrote: December 27th, 2017, 2:48 am Prior to his execution, Hubener was excommunicated for his activities in resisting the Nazi's.
He has since been posthumously restored to church membership.
Another example of the Evils of statism. Man trying to serve two masters

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