LibGuides: English: Jojo Rabbit

Film: Jojo Rabbit

Hitler Youth cadet Jojo Betzler firmly believes in the ideals of Nazism manifested by his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler. However, his foundations are shaken when he finds a Jewish girl in his house.

Production Year: 2019
Duration: 1:44:03
Rating: M

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Useful Links

The Guardian: Jojo Rabbit review – down the rabbit hole with Hitler
Taika Waititi follows a distinguished tradition with this ‘strange art comedy’ about a boy growing up in Nazi Germany, but fails to cut to the dark heart of the matter
The Sydney Morning Herald: Hitler comedy as a concept? It's a risky move, but it works in Jojo Rabbit
"The premise may be cute – a 10-year-old German boy, Jojo, struggles to be a good Hitler Youth in World War II – but there is real violence and trauma around the corner. As the kid wises up about the war, the Nazis and the reality of the lies on which he has been raised, people are dying in the streets of his otherwise picturesque small town. In that sense, it's a film about the betrayal of a child's innocence."
The New York Times: ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Review: The Third Reich Wasn’t All Fun and Games
Taika Waititi’s new film mixes farce, fantasy and drama in a Nazi-era coming-of-age story.
Film Inquiry: The Devastating Beauty of Jojo Rabbit
"Through the eyes of a child’s innocence, viewers are given a diaphanous veil to the darkness of war, brain washing and the hate that created and accelerated a war and a genocide. The seeds planted deeply into the perspective of a child, too naive to understand and too willing to follow, all while the world around him fell to devastation – a world that was more than what it seemed."
What is Jojo Rabbit About? Synopsis, Quotes, & Video Analysis
This article discusses some of the motifs, tonal shifts and withholding of visual information that create powerful and dramatic moments in Jojo Rabbit.
GradeSaver: Jojo Rabbit Study Guide
This detailed study guide provides an overview and analysis of the themes and motifs in Jojo Rabbit.

How Did Hitler Come to Power?

BBC Bitesize: Hitler into power, 1929-1934
How did Hitler become the führer? This BBC summary - designed for upper secondary students - explores the internal and external factors culminating in the dictator's rise.

This episode of Ten Minute History (like a documentary, only shorter) covers Germany from the end of the First World War to the end of the World War 2.

Duration: 9:59

Just years after World War I, Germany and other nations are in an economic depression. Leader approval ratings of Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain are shallow, giving the rise to military dictators along with their parties. Years after Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, he and his generals plot the invasion of Poland.

Production Year: 2008

Duration: 51:20

The Final Solution

Source: Self-made by User:Dna-Dennis, using information from USHMM & Wikipedia.

Britannica School: Holocaust
Britannica School article on the Holocaust.
Jewish Holocaust Centre: Eyewitness: The Survivor's Voice
The JHC Eyewitness Project aims to preserve the fifteen-minute talks given by survivors to students. The survivors’ stories enable viewers to engage with the human side of Holocaust history.
Holocaust Encyclopedia: Auschwitz Animated Map
Animated map and timeline, including photographs, of the running of Auschwitz and its use in the Final Solution, including liberation by Soviet forces.
Holocaust Encyclopedia: Einsatzgruppen Animated Map
During the Holocaust, members of mobile killing units known as “Einsatzgruppen” (literally “operational groups”) murdered well over one million civilians, primarily in mass shootings in the Soviet Union. These events are referred to by Wiesel in the return to Sighet of Moshe the Beadle, early in Night.
Holocaust Encyclopedia: The Holocaust in Hungary: Frequently Asked Questions
Overview of the Holocaust in Hungary, and the different stages of the roll-out of the Final Solution (deportation of Jewish refugees, ghettoisation, and deportation of Jewish nationals).

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 (eBook) by Geoffrey P. Megargee; Martin Dean
ISBN: 9780253002020
This volume offers a comprehensive account of how the Nazis conducted the Holocaust throughout the scattered towns and villages of Poland and the Soviet Union. It covers more than 1,150 sites, including both open and closed ghettos. Each entry discusses key events in the history of the ghetto; living and working conditions; activities of the Jewish Councils; Jewish responses to persecution; demographic changes; and details of the ghetto's liquidation.

Loss of Jewish Rights

Holocaust Encyclopedia: Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany
A timeline of anti-Jewish legislation in the Third Reich, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Holocaust Encyclopedia: Sighet
A detailed article about Sighet, Wiesel's birthplace and location of the ghetto in early chapters of Night. Photos throughout the article show Sighet both before and after the 1944 deportation of its Jewish residents to Auschwitz.

Hitler and Kristallnacht (eBook) by Andrew Langley
ISBN: 9781432988210
Why did Adolf Hitler encourage attacks on Jews and their property, escalating Nazi Germany's anti-Semitic policies to new levels of brutality? How did his decision affect countries around the world and change the course of history?

The Third Reich

Britannica School: The Third Reich
A detailed article from Britannica School on the Third Reich.
Britannica School: Nazism
A useful overview of the roots and spread of Nazism.
BBC Bitesize: Why the Nazis were able to stay in power
The Nazis crushed opposition through legal moves, fear and intimidation. Propaganda and social control kept the population in line. Popular economic and foreign policies encouraged widespread support.

English: Jojo Rabbit