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. 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.
Plot 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.
Cast Erich Dunskus Willy Witte Johannes Schütz
Production Hände hoch! was produced by the DFG, and filmed in occupied Slovakia, with cinematography by Emil Schünemann.
Release and classification The film premiered in Berlin on 22 October 1942.
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).
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.
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.
See also Kinderlandverschickung Hitler Youth Nazi propaganda
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