Hitler's Children

Edward Dmytryk in his autobiography 'It's a Hell of a Life But Not a Bad Living', states: "A friend of mine, Irving Reis, had prepared and actually started shooting a film called 'Hitler's Children', an exploitation B. Irving was rather headstrong and somewhat touchy - a bad combination in Hollywood. After a few days, he got into a fight with producer Doc Golden [Robert Golden]. Getting his back up, he quit the film, expecting, so he told me later, to win a quick apology and a free hand. Instead, the studio said, 'As you wish,' and asked me to take over the direction. He gave me his blessing, asking only that his name be completely removed from the film's credits. The studio was willing and I went to work. I finished on schedule, cut and dubbed it, and turned it over to the distribution department. None of us at the studio was sure of what we had."

Karl Bruner is wearing the four pips and strip on his uniform collar of an SS Obersturmbanfuhrer, or Lieutenant Colonel, when Colonel Henkel said he would be promoted to Captain (or Hauptsturmfuhrer) and should be wearing a collar tab with three pips (diagonally) and two stripes. Colonel Henkel's insignia is also incorrect. He is wearing the three oak leaves of a Brigadefuhrer (Brigadier General) when he should have only one leaf of a Standartanfuhrer (Colonel).

During opening credits, the camera zooms in on a German book burning, and the book on top of the pile is "Education for Death" by Gregor Ziemer. That was another book by the same author of the novel on which this film is based.

There is an Italian DVD edition of this movie, distributed by DNA Srl. The movie was re-edited with the contribution of the film history scholar Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available in streaming on some platforms.

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