Hände hoch!

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Written byAlfred Weidenmann
StarringErich Dunskus
Willy Witte
Johannes Schütz
CinematographyEmil Schünemann
Hände hoch!
Directed byAlfred Weidenmann
Written byAlfred Weidenmann
StarringErich Dunskus
Willy Witte
Johannes Schütz
CinematographyEmil Schünemann
Music byHorst Hanns Sieber
Production
company
Deutsche Filmherstellungs- und Verwertungs-GmbH (DFG)
Release date
  • 22 October 1942 (1942-10-22)
(Berlin)
Running time
67 minutes
CountryGermany

Hände hoch! (German for "Hands up!") is a 1942 German Nazi propaganda film directed and written by Alfred Weidenmann. The film portrays life in a Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) camp for evacuated German children in Slovakia during World War II.[1] A scholarly study of cinematographer Emil Schünemann describes the film as a Hitler Youth drama shot in occupied Slovakia and commissioned for the DFG and the NSDAP’s film propaganda apparatus.[2]

Set around a KLV camp in Slovakia, the film focuses on a group of German boys and presents the camp as a safe, orderly environment removed from the war.[3]

Cast

Production

Hände hoch! was produced by the DFG, and filmed in occupied Slovakia, with cinematography by Emil Schünemann.[2][4]

Release and classification

The film premiered in Berlin on 22 October 1942.[4]

In Nazi-era classification systems, it received state predicates including staatspolitisch und künstlerisch wertvoll (politically and artistically valuable), jugendwert (youth-approved), and Lehrfilm (instructional film).[5]

Reception

A contemporary press note reproduced on filmportal.de framed the film as showing parents "a peaceful, carefree life" for their children at a Hitler Youth camp in the Carpathians.[4]

A 1943 parent newsletter for the expanded KLV program (Sachsengruß) discussed the film’s circulation through party and Hitler Youth screenings, and claimed it had won the "Doktor-Goebbels-Preis" at the 1942 European youth film competition in Florence.[6]

See also

References

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