The film ‘Napola’ is a true, honest and accurate portrayal of life at a National Political Academy. This was the experience for around 15,000 students from 1933-1945. The film manifests the experience on a basic level through to a deeper, much more complex one through the director’s prominent use of plot, characterisation, dialogue, and props and costume design.

A basic analysis of the film can conclude that the Napola itself contributes to the films authenticity and overall success of conveying the war experience of the academy’s students. To convey the appearance of a Napola, the director Dennis Gansel uses the techniques of props and costumes. The students’ uniforms have a Napola symbol sewn onto them (pictured below) and their rooms are set up to mimic the boarding rooms of a Napola with bunk beds and small closets.

The assembly hall and eating hall are both donned with the Nazi Party flags, with the latter including large dining tables. Gansel includes minor props to detail the academy, for example Hitler’s portrait is pictured in the background of the shots taken in the classrooms.

The protagonist, played by Max Reimelt, is considered racially surpreme with his German aryian features: blonde hair and blue eyes. Most of the boys in the film fit this description (except for Albrecht as he was admitted into the school based on his father’s position in the Nazi party). The implicit and explicit props all contribute to creating a realistic Napola environment.

To convey the feeling of a Napola, Gansel relies heavily on characterisation and plot. The abusive teachers and officers at the Napola generate a mood of fear amongst the audience and evidently amongst the students too. It gives the audience the sense that the students are ‘walking on eggshells’ and must be careful of everything they say and do- especially if they are not instantly supportive of the Nazi code. The officers and teachers frequently humiliate, degrade and tyrannize the students. This is most obvious in the relationship between the officers and personal training teacher, and the student Sieggi. Sieggi is, although a teenager, a bed-wetter and the dorm officer uses this to blackmail Sieggi and force him to stand outside in the rain with his mattress over his head, and the personal training teacher makes him consciously pee on his mattress in front of his entire class. The people of authority are depicted to abuse their power and are often shown flexing their authoritarian muscle simply because they can. This sort of abuse is carried out to eliminate any oppositions to the Nazi code and eliminate chances of non-conformity. Napolas did not encourage free thinking and individualism as it was Hitler’s goal to produce a ‘new generation’ how he wanted them to be. Characterisation and plot are utilised to convey the oppressive nature of the Napolas experienced by children who attended them.

As seen in other war films such as Brothers, the war experience can have a great psychological effect on those involved.

‘War-related traumas vary enormously in their intensity, from exposure to brutal death and witnessing of explosive-violent acts, to the derivative effects of war such as displacement, relocation, sickness, loss of loved ones, and starvation. Among those children exposed to war-related stressors for a longer period, it is generally estimated that the prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptomatology varies from 10 to 90%, manifested by anxiety disorders such as posttraumaticstress disorder and other psychiatric morbidities including depression, disruptive behaviors, and somatic symptoms’ (Allwood, Bell-Dolan, & Husain, 2002; Goldstein,Wampler, &Wise, 1997; Hadi & Llabre, 1998; Thabet & Vostanis,1999).

Gansel uses the techniques of characterisation and plot to emphasise this significant image of war. Due to the harsh treatment at the Napolas, physically, emotionally and psychologically, the audience can see through the character Sieggi the side effects the treatment has on a young person. Sieggi et the bed almost every night and his problem was not addressed- only used as a means of humiliation and bullying. His bed wetting was a psychological side-effect from all the cruelty endured at the Napola.

Gansel further highlights the psychological torment often faced by people who have had a war experience through the character of Albrecht Stein. Albrecht cannot stand what the Nazis stand for and is the voice of reason and morality throughout the entire movie. After his father, the Govenor, comes to the Napola one night to call upon the jungmannen to help stop the enemy, the ‘wild creatures’ that escaped Nazi captivity and fled into a nearby forest. This is the first time the students are no longer experiencing a simulation or training- this is the first time they get to put all their skills and military knowledge into practise and to first-handedly fight in the war. As the event unfolds the boys shoot dead the ‘monsters’ without hesitation. As they approach the dying bodies they are equally shocked in realising that these were not monsters as the Govenor made out to be, but in fact Russian children around the same age as them. None were armed, contradictory to what the students had been lead on to believe. This is also an example of just how monstrous, brutal and unforgiving World War 2 was. Hysterically, Albrecht Albrecht rushes to aid the children in a frantic attempt to save their lives whilst the other boys stand onlooking in complete shock. Soon the Govenor arrives, orders his son to step back and mercilessly shoots the dying child in the skull. He then says to Albrecht ‘Don’t you dare try and stand up to me in public again’. The psychological effects of this event take place immediately (see here). That night after the students return to their dorms, Sieggi wants to talk about what happened with another student Hefe, but Hefe refuses to talk about the event. This sort of symptom is common in people suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

WWII differed from previous wars in its use of bigger field weapons and bombs, which placed soldiers at greater risk of having traumatic experiences and producing mental health problems such as PTSD. German doctors diagnosed the problem among their troops at about the same time as the Swiss. They referred to the condition as ‘heimweh’ (homesickness). PTSD is an important aspect of war that was portrayed in ‘Napola’. PTSD was not tended for in places like Napolas as Hitler believed”The weak must be chiselled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be as swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp’s steel.”

2 days later fter the incident, Albrecht kills himself during a training session in front of his peers, due to the psychological torment and extreme disapproval of the Nazi ideologies.

‘Napola’ also portrays the differing opinions towards the Nazi regime and the amount of influence they had over youth. Gansel executes this through his use of characterisation, dialogue and plot. The film is told through the point of view of Friedrich Weimar who comes from a town that does not have much to do with anything other than factory work. He has an unbiased perspective of the Nazi party which allows the viewer to see the influence the Nazi party had over youth as well as effectively convey other character’s view on issues. At the start of the film Friedrich’s father forbids his son attending a Napola, opposing the Nazi ideologies saying ‘We’ve got nothing in common with those people’. Later in the film Friedrich’s father gets a visit from the Gestapo, the corrupt ‘secret police’ run under Hitler’s rule who were notorious for ‘sorting out’ people who were not in favour of Hitler or the Nazi party. Friedrich highly in favour of the Napola and the opportunities the Nazis offered for those who went there. This is seen in a conversation between Friedrich and his younger brother Hans. These benefits that Friedrich states were almost like traps set to lure the youths support for the Nazi regime (see here). The Nazi party was known for offering bribes as a means of getting what they wanted. For example in an effort to ensure women stayed carried on the aryian race, the Nazi party issued the ‘Mother’s Cross’ award to honour mother’s who has produced more than 8 or more children.

The most notable contrast in viewpoints on the Nazi ideologies were between Albrecht and his father. Both opinions are extreme: Albrecht strongly disapproves and cannot see one good thing in the Nazi regime whilst his father is passionately supportive of it, taking an active role in the party. Albrecht notices the level of influence the party has over the students most evidently in Friedrich. Friedrich was told by his boxing coach to ‘fight until the knockout’, ‘make his opponent cry’ and to ‘slaughter him’. This is reflective of the overall Nazi ideology and towards the end of the match Friedrich seems to ‘lose’ his own free-thinking and mercilessly beats his opponent to unconsciousness. Albrecht expressionlessly on looked amongst a euphoric crowd and later said to Friedrich “I just wonder if there was an alternative way to win”. Albrecht voices his disgust with what the Nazis were teaching them about them and the ‘enemy’ after the night the students murdered innocent children (see here).

At the end of the film, Friedrich realises that the Napola is not all that it was made out to be, nor the Nazi party. He purposely loses his final boxing match, humiliating the Napola and is expelled from it. During the match Gansel visually links Friedrich’s act of defiance to the blood thirsty faces of the governor and the Napola officers in the stands. Not every German was in favour of what the Nazi party was preaching and this film shows the differing viewpoints Germans would have held about the Napolas and the Nazi beliefs.

‘Napola’ is a powerful and emotional film that director Dennis Gansel has effectively portrayed the war experience of those at a Napola school. Gansel learned about Napolas from his grandfather’s experience in them and other ex-students.