Kadetten

Yes, it's propaganda but no worse than other propaganda films released by the Allies during WW2. Actually, it works well with the plot loosely based on actual events.

One has to bear in mind that many of the young extras who appeared in this film would themselves be in combat a few years later and some of them would lose their lives; Klaus Detlef Sierk, the estranged son of director Douglas Sirk, was to perish on the Eastern Front in 1944 aged just eighteen. Watching this film is eerie when one considers the possible fate of those appearing in it; most of the youngsters were from the Potsdam Napola Academy, one of the Hitler Youth schools.

The ubiquitous Carsta Lock ( a stock female lead in many Third Reich wartime films) appears and Mathias Wieman plays the hero ultimately redeemed through his actions. I really can't fault this film; it's exciting, well acted and well thought out. I think that many people would condemn it as bad simply because it's a 'Nazi' film. Watch it first and then decide.