Instruction at the school ranged from the playing of war games to studying Hitler's Mein Kampf.[7] Many Cadets had already served in the Hitler Youth and brought up under the Nazi propaganda machine.[7] Nazi ideology was an important part of the curriculum.[7] Political and ideological indoctrination was part of the syllabus for all SS cadets, but there was no merger of academic learning and military instruction like that found at West Point in the United States.[8] Instead, personality training was stressed, which meant future SS leaders/officers were shaped above all things by a National Socialist worldview and attitude.