When the Second World War entered the phase of bombing of German cities, Nazi authorities started a program of evacuating children from targeted cities to less dangerous remote and rural areas - erweiterte Kinderlandverschickung, or KLV for short. Participation was optional and many parents did not want their children sent to distant places for many months, with little possibility of visiting.  To placate these sentiments, and to advertise these camps as good fun and camaraderie, at least two propaganda films were produced - this Hände hoch is one, Ausser Gefahr is another.  Hände hoch takes place in "friendly Slovakia", as it was called. Some 40..50 boys are quartered in a rural lodge, and besides school classes, can take horse riding lessons. They get in contact with the locals and learn a bit of Slovakian. Initially, all appears to be well and fine.  Then the "Slovak land rain" arrives, and stays for more than a week. The kids get more and more unruly, gloomy, or frustrated because they are confined to the house. The local policeman arrives and announces that two wanted criminals are on the run (conveniently, on bicycles). The boys form three groups (one on foot, one on horseback, one on bicycles) and are to search the area, including an inn in a nearby village, where they finally spot the suspects.