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JOJO RABBIT | Official Trailer [HD] | FOX Searchlight

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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 ...

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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 ... Sign in to watch 2003 - 2021 © ClickView Pty Limited

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle / Review

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'We have always lived in the Castle'

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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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How Did Hitler Come to Power?

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 WorldWarI, 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 AdolfHitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, he and his generals plot the invasionofPoland.

Production Year: 2008

Duration: 51:20

Further Reading

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During the press tour for Jojo Rabbit, writer/producer/director/actor Taika Waititi described the film as an "anti-hate" satire. An irreverent and farcical Nazi comedy about a Hitler Youth member who falls in love with a Jewish girl, Jojo Rabbit takes many liberties with its approach to genre and tone. The 2019 film was praised upon its release for the way it blends comedy and profundity, and Waititi's screenplay earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as five other nominations.

The film follows the young Jojo Betzler as he tries to be the best little Nazi he can be, in spite of his complete lack of athleticism. Meanwhile, his mother, Rosie, is working tirelessly for the resistance and hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Throughout the film, the mother and son struggle to understand each other as they fight for opposite sides of the war effort. All the while, Waititi infuses this highly serious subject matter with bombastic and ridiculous humor, making the more disturbing elements farcical whenever he can.

While the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, critical response to the film was mixed, with some citing its irreverent attitude towards World War II as either offensive, or else politically empty. Richard Brody wrote of the film, "Today, making fun of Hitler and his minions is both easy and pointless, because he poses no threat; Waititi is kicking a dead bull." Still, other critics praised it. Anthony Lane wrote, "There is genuine zest in the unease of Jojo Rabbit, and it's weirdly convincing as a portrait of childhood under surreal strain."

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During the press tour for Jojo Rabbit , writer/producer/director/actor Taika Waititi described the film as an "anti-hate" satire. An irreverent and farcical Nazi comedy about a Hitler Youth member who falls in love with a Jewish girl, Jojo Rabbit takes many liberties with its approach to genre and tone.

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We have always lived in the Castle- study guide

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We have always lived in the Castle- study guide

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Litcharts- excellent study guide

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle Study Guide | Literature Guide | LitCharts

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The best study guide to We Have Always Lived in the Castle on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need.

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WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE Trailer (Horror 2019) | Alexandra Daddario Movie

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Jackson's famous short story

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Jackson's most famous short story

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Jojo Rabbit Full Movie Breakdown! Easter Eggs & Details You Missed!

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Jojo Rabbit Full Movie Breakdown! Easter Eggs & Details You Missed!

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Jojo Rabbit Full Movie Breakdown! Easter Eggs & Details You Missed!

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Interesting tidbits about songs, costumes and symbols/posters in the film

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Interesting tidbits about songs, costumes and symbols/posters in the film

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Jojo Rabbit (2019) Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more...

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Wives and Witches: An Analysis of “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson.

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Wives and Witches: An Analysis of “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson.

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) - Book Analysis

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Taika Waititi and Stephen Merchant Break Down a Scene from 'Jojo Rabbit'

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Taika Waititi and Stephen Merchant Break Down a Scene from 'Jojo Rabbit'

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Taika Waititi and Stephen Merchant Break Down a Scene from 'Jojo Rabbit'

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Jojo Rabbit - Discussion of the differences between the original book and the film

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Jojo Rabbit - Discussion of the differences between the original book and the film

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Taika Waititi on How He Persuaded Hollywood to Make His Hitler Comedy 'Jojo Rabbit'

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Taika Waititi on How He Persuaded Hollywood to Make His Hitler Comedy 'Jojo Rabbit'

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Taika Waititi on How He Persuaded Hollywood to Make His Hitler Comedy 'Jojo Rabbit'

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Jojo Rabbit Analysis | Symbolism, Motifs, And Metaphors

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Jojo Rabbit Analysis | Symbolism, Motifs, And Metaphors

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Jojo Rabbit Analysis | Symbolism, Motifs, And Metaphors

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At last, the movie that Bialystock and Bloom, in "The Producers," would have made when they got out of prison and went legit. Whereas they turned their production of "Springtime for Hitler," intended as pro-Nazi propaganda, into the world's unfunniest comedy in pursuit of colossal failure, "Jojo Rabbit," meant as an anti-Nazi spectacle, is the world's unfunniest comedy made in pursuit of success. Even though the target of satire in "Jojo Rabbit" is clearly the Nazis, the movie sharply but unintentionally satirizes itself, as well as its makers and the movie industry at large that saw fit to produce, release, and acclaim it. Although made by the celebrated writer and director Taika Waititi and released by a major studio, "Jojo Rabbit," with its combination of extreme goofball humor (including a campily over-the-top caricature of Hitler, played by Waititi himself) and grim and earnest portrayal of the terrors of Germany's genocidal tyranny, plays more like a comedic fantasy composed for The Onion as a reductio ad absurdum of the blinkered follies to which Hollywood and its potentates are susceptible.

The film is set in the last year of the Second World War, in a town in Germany where a ten-year-old boy, Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), an enthusiastic new member of the Hitler Youth, lives with his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson). Jojo's father isn't home-Rosie says that he's away at war, but other adults tell Jojo that his father is a coward-and it's revealed that he is suspected of being a deserter. Rosie, for her part, is quietly but determinedly hostile to the Nazi regime. Yet Jojo has decorated his room with a profusion of Nazi posters and memorabilia, and he's often visited by his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Waititi), who turns up in the boy's moments of emotional need, bucking up his courage or assuaging his humiliations. (In his first appearance in the film, Hitler urges Jojo to "Heil" him more confidently.)

Jojo's Hitler Youth brigade, uniformed and organized in the lighthearted tone of a scout troop from " Moonrise Kingdom," is led by a trio of adults, Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), Fred Finkel (Alfie Allen), and Fräulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson), who express virulent, over-the-top mockeries and hatreds of Jews and lead the boys in a monstrous ritual of cruelty. In teaching them to kill for the Führer, they order one of the boys-Jojo-to take hold of a rabbit and snap its neck. Jojo can't do it, and runs away to the taunts of one leader, who says that if he can't kill a rabbit maybe he himself is a scared rabbit. The boys start in with a mocking singsong chant of "Jojo Rabbit," which is where the movie's title comes from-but while Jojo is running the imaginary Hitler appears beside him, to remind him that it's good to be a rabbit, that rabbits are wise and cunning and live to fight another day.

But when Jojo is seriously wounded in a mishap with a grenade caused by his clumsy effort (backed by his imaginary friend, Hitler), he's relegated to noncombat tasks such as putting up posters in town, and he starts spending a lot of time at home alone. Hearing a noise upstairs, he investigates, finds a cut in a wood panel, pries it open with his Hitler Youth knife, and discovers a space where a teen-age girl is hiding-or, rather, unbeknownst to him, is being hidden by Rosie. Jojo is scared when he finds her. He thinks that she's a ghost; she denies it, and he asks, "What are you?" She answers, "A Jew," and he responds, "Gesundheit." This is the best joke in the movie.

The girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), was a friend of Jojo's late sister, Inge. Despite Jojo's inculcated hatred for Jews, the lonely and curious boy spends time with Elsa in the upstairs aerie, gleans bits and pieces of her life story, and, despite the difference in their ages (he's ten, she's around sixteen), he develops a crush on her (and displays it by writing letters in which he impersonates her former boyfriend, a Jewish resistance fighter named Nathan). Resistance is everywhere: Rosie is revealed, early on, to be more than just privately averse to Nazis: she's an active, albeit (as far as the movie shows) nonviolent resister. When she and Jojo pass a gibbet in the town square where five ostensible traitors have been hanged, Jojo asks her what they did, and she answers, "What they could." As proof of their so-called crime, the authorities have pinned small anti-Nazi handbills to their clothing; it turns out that Rosie is the source of those flyers.

Meanwhile, Hitler continues to make his fantasy visitations to Jojo, whose friendship with Elsa deepens along with his anti-Semitic fanaticism. After hearing the Hitler Youth leaders joke about the difficulty of recognizing Jews, he questions Elsa about Jewish traits so that he can compile a hand-drawn instructional manual (filled with absurd caricatures and wild imaginings) on the subject. He asks about "her kind"; she answers, "We're like you, but human." When he asks about her horns, she says that hers haven't grown in yet. Elsa then boasts about being one of God's chosen people, while Jojo and other Nazis "were chosen by a weak little man who can't even grow a full mustache." Yet, for all these exaggerated antics regarding hatred, the movie delivers its earnest terrors in a scene involving a visit from the Gestapo, whose members, while bearing deadly threats, also get a dash of caricature, as one of them (played by Stephen Merchant), seeing the Nazi décor of Jojo's room, says, "I wish more of our young boys had your blind fanaticism."

Although "Jojo Rabbit" is set during the Second World War, the target of the movie's derision is self-evident: it goes beyond the particulars of its drama to mock people who hate on the basis of ethnicity, to expose the power of propaganda and adult manipulators to inculcate such hatred in children, and to suggest an eventual cure for such hatred-namely, personal relationships that prove the humanity of the persecuted minority. Put aside the historical matter of how German Jews were deeply integrated into German society, and the likelihood that many Germans, many Nazis, knew their Jewish neighbors well. (This tragic element of history was addressed by the New York-based filmmaker Manfred Kirchheimer, who arrived in the United States in 1936 as a German-Jewish refugee, in his 1986 documentary " We Were So Beloved "-the title itself refers to German gentiles' personal affection for their Jewish neighbors.) In "Jojo Rabbit," the Nazis, as the iconic extreme of genocidal hatred, stand in for current-day haters.

Yet Nazis are easy targets; Hitler and his cronies need little satirizing. (They needed it in their era, and got it, not least, in Hollywood, from the German-Jewish director Ernst Lubitsch, in the film " To Be or Not to Be.") Today, making fun of Hitler and his minions is both easy and pointless, because he poses no threat; Waititi is kicking a dead bull. The haters who need satirizing are in power, starting at the top, with members of the Administration and high-ranking advisers, and including participants in the deadly Charlottesville rally. But to make a feature film that openly mocks the President, his aides, and some of his supporters would be taking a risk that's unlikely from a mainstream filmmaker and studio-at least, until that leader leaves office (see " Vice," which isn't even much of a satire).

Rather, "Jojo Rabbit" puts forward, with its blend of antics and sentimentality, something like a vision of daily life in Nazi Germany that makes conspicuous not only its terrors and oppressions but also a vision of widespread resistance. It shows, even in comedic form, the regime's efforts to force citizens into open conformity and practical complicity with its genocidal ideology and practice. But the movie is centered on, so to speak, the good Germans-those, such as Rosie and other so-called traitors, who were active resisters, and also the blatant acts of resistance by individual Nazis who hold public office but nonetheless display risky and self-sacrificing bravery, more than once, in decisive actions that provide the movie with its crucial plot points. "Jojo Rabbit" is conspicuously a movie about the presence of good Nazis who, at critical moments, conducted their own forms of resistance from inside the institutions of power.

In this way, "Jojo Rabbit," although set in the past, puts forward a political idea in the present tense. The film is being marketed as "an anti-hate satire," not as "an anti-Nazi satire," and for once, advertising is truthful. The movie is not substantially about Nazi Germany but uses it as an allegory for current-day expressions and politics of hatred. In showing Jojo's family story-which includes his mildness and clumsiness, the absence of his father, and that absent father's past brutality (which is presented solely as heavy yelling, not physical abuse, because the movie has no room for any complicated emotional conflict), Waititi displays a sort of wan humanism in which Jojo's fanatical Nazism seems excusable, or at least understandable, because it responds to his own personal psychological issues. No less than " Joker," "Jojo Rabbit" is another contrivance on the theme of "hurt people hurt people."

Above all, the subject of "Jojo Rabbit" is, in effect, "Don't judge a Nazi by its cover"- don't judge Nazis by their uniforms or their allegiances or their declarations or even their actions. First, acknowledge the extreme danger of offering any resistance to such a tyrannical regime, and have sympathy for ordinary people who are just trying to get by with their heads down and who instead get drawn into the bureaucracy of evil, where, despite their true feelings, they have to feign commitment while doing their jobs or following orders. Second, try to understand the pain that drove them to support or identify with the rule of a bloodthirsty dictator, that motivates them to espouse and advance a deadly hatred of another ethnic group, or that caused a naïve and damaged person to imagine Hitler as a good guy. Third, have confidence-or, rather, to borrow the Hollywood catchword that Steven Soderbergh has definitively satirized, "hope"-that, when push comes to shove, a Nazi's essential decency and humanity will come to the fore and save the day.

The present-day didacticism of "Jojo Rabbit," by encouraging viewers to look with benign empathy at Nazis, the cinema's iconic worst of the worst, is also encouraging a similar sympathy for the Trump supporter next door, and even for the self-caricaturing Trump himself. The actual target of "Jojo Rabbit" isn't really the haters, it's those who would presume to hate the haters. The movie doesn't so much satirize Nazis, let alone expose the fraudulence of contemporary hatemongers (such as neo-Nazis or alt-rightists) or mainstream Republican Trump-cultists. Rather, the movie ultimately cautions against the easy contempt and dismissal of them by liberals and progressives: there are a lot of very fine people on both sides.

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Springtime for Nazis: How the Satire of "Jojo Rabbit" Backfires

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At last, the movie that Bialystock and Bloom, in "The Producers," would have made when they got out of prison and went legit. Whereas they turned their production of "Springtime for Hitler," intended as pro-Nazi propaganda, into the world's unfunniest comedy in pursuit of colossal failure, "Jojo Rabbit," meant as an anti-Nazi spectacle, is the world's unfunniest comedy made in pursuit of success.

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Characters, themes, quotes etc.

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During the press tour for Jojo Rabbit, writer/producer/director/actor Taika Waititi described the film as an "anti-hate" satire. An irreverent and farcical Nazi comedy about a Hitler Youth member who falls in love with a Jewish girl, Jojo Rabbit takes many liberties with its approach to genre and tone. The 2019 film was praised upon its release for the way it blends comedy and profundity, and Waititi's screenplay earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as five other nominations.

The film follows the young Jojo Betzler as he tries to be the best little Nazi he can be, in spite of his complete lack of athleticism. Meanwhile, his mother, Rosie, is working tirelessly for the resistance and hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Throughout the film, the mother and son struggle to understand each other as they fight for opposite sides of the war effort. All the while, Waititi infuses this highly serious subject matter with bombastic and ridiculous humor, making the more disturbing elements farcical whenever he can.

While the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, critical response to the film was mixed, with some citing its irreverent attitude towards World War II as either offensive, or else politically empty. Richard Brody wrote of the film, "Today, making fun of Hitler and his minions is both easy and pointless, because he poses no threat; Waititi is kicking a dead bull." Still, other critics praised it. Anthony Lane wrote, "There is genuine zest in the unease of Jojo Rabbit, and it's weirdly convincing as a portrait of childhood under surreal strain."

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During the press tour for Jojo Rabbit , writer/producer/director/actor Taika Waititi described the film as an "anti-hate" satire. An irreverent and farcical Nazi comedy about a Hitler Youth member who falls in love with a Jewish girl, Jojo Rabbit takes many liberties with its approach to genre and tone.

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What is Jojo Rabbit About? Synopsis, Quotes, & Video Analysis

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What is Jojo Rabbit About? Synopsis, Quotes, & Video Analysis

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Great discussion of symbols/motifs

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What is Jojo Rabbit about?

Jojo Rabbit follows a 10-year-old boy named Johannes Betzler, an idealistic yet misguided Hitler Youth during WWII. He lives with his mother, Rosie, and is often visited by an imaginary friend - a cartoonish version of Adolf Hitler.

While attending Hitler Youth Training Camp, Jojo is injured while mishandling a grenade. While recovering from his injuries, Jojo discovers that his mother has been secretly hiding a young Jewish girl named Elsa in their attic.

Jojo is now stuck - revealing this hideaway to the authorities would get both he and his mother executed. Instead, his plan is to learn as much as he can about Jews so he can provide this intel to his superiors.

This plan backfires when his conversations reveal Elsa to be anything but the evil monster he assumed she was. For more on the plot, tone and satire at work in Jojo Rabbit, here's the trailer.

Jojo Rabbit Director

How Taika Waititi uses motifs

Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi is no stranger to the motif. He has been crafting and implementing compelling motifs in film since all the way back in his TV days, working on episodes of the excellent 2007 HBO show Flight of the Conchords.

MOTIF DEFINITION

What is a motif in film?

A motif is a repeated narrative element that supports the theme of a story. A motif in film can be presented in a number of ways like physical items, sound design, lines of dialogue, music, colors, and symbols. Any motif used will vastly improve your story if it has narrative significance.

Visual motifs in film use recurring patterns through props, set design, costumes, symbols, and events to support the intended theme of a story.

Examples of motifs in film:

The American flag in Silence of the Lambs

Mirrors in Black Swan

The color red in The Sixth Sense

Clocks in Back to the Future

In Jojo Rabbit, Waititi uses motifs for one purpose - to make the most emotional scene in the movie like a punch to the gut. We've seen these motifs throughout the film but we aren't quite sure of their significance until the most devastating moment...

SPOILER ALERT!

Jojo's mother is hanged for treason.

As we break down the Jojo Rabbit hanging scene, you'll find that there are two important visual motifs at play in the hanging scene: the butterflies and the mother's shoes.

To see these repeated visuals clearly for our Jojo Rabbit analysis we'll bring the scene into a StudioBinder storyboard. First, let's look at our first motif - butterflies.

Jojo Rabbit * Storyboard of butterfly shots * View Storyboard

Earlier on in Jojo Rabbit, Waititi introduced butterflies as an important image. A particular feeling and emotion have been attached to the symbol, which sets us up even more for the emotional gut-punch to come after Jojo follows a particular blue butterfly.

More striking than the butterfly imagery, is the mother's distinctive pair of shoes - the second important visual motif.

Jojo Rabbit * Rosie's shoes * View Storyboard

A good director thinks about the composition of every single shot in their film. They know, for example, the rules of composition - when to follow them and when to break them.

Waititi used a very particular and odd compositional motif. You may have even registered their oddness while watching the film but their purpose isn't revealed until the critical moment. That's how a great director plans and executes a visual motif.

Jojo Rabbit analysis

How to shift tone

For the next stage of our Jojo Rabbit analysis, we're turning our attention to the complex matter of shifting tone. An abrupt change of tone can instantly break a viewer's immersion and take them out of the film. Navigating a tonal shift takes careful planning at all levels, starting with the Jojo Rabbit script.

The difference in tone between the hanging scene and every scene that preceded it is immediately apparent when endeavoring any Jojo Rabbit analysis. Let's use StudioBinder's screenwriting software to take a look at the Jojo Rabbit script for closer inspection.

The first indication of the tonal shift in the script comes from this action line which sees Jojo's imaginary friend manifestation of Hitler losing his friendly, comedic edge. Without removing the element of comedy, the real hate of Hitler's messaging is beginning to show, tipping to the tone toward the more serious end of the spectrum.

Jojo Rabbit Screenplay * Tonal Shift * Read Full Scene

On the visual side, the Jojo Rabbit director strips all of the bright, warm colors out of the image, replacing them with cold, blue tones. For more information on these types of color decisions in post, make sure you understand the difference between color grading vs. color correction.

The shocking reveal is accompanied by a large slow down of pace. Shots linger on Jojo's heartbreak and the passage of time is elongated through slow edits.

Tone can be reinforced or magnified through composition. A tonal shift is a great chance to change up the visual style of a film, and Taika Waititi does that in Jojo Rabbit by withholding visual information.

TAIKA WAITITI

How to withhold information

For the final stage of our Jojo Rabbit analysis, we're focusing on the things that the film's director chose not to show. The majority of a film's impact on an audience comes from the visual information that it conveys, but, occasionally, withholding visual information can serve to heighten an emotional moment.

In this scene, the director of Jojo Rabbit chose not to show Rosie's face. We know who it is instantly because her striking red and white shoes have been set up perfectly throughout the course of the film. Not allowing us as an audience to see her face is a bold choice; one that adds an extra layer of closeness between Jojo and his mother that the audience doesn't get to share.

Did You Know?

Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi planned on using David Bowie's Heroes as the closing song from the very beginning of his creative process.

When asked about shooting the scene this way, Taika Waititi explained that seeing a dead loved one is an intimate thing and that the audience doesn't have permission to see what Jojo sees at that moment.

This use of visual and narrative motifs is just the beginning of what makes this such a powerful film. To get into even more detail on the visual style of the film, here's Mihai Malaimare Jr., cinematographer of Jojo Rabbit, explaining the camera and lighting choices that were made.

Jojo Rabbit Scene Analysis with Cinematographer

For any filmmakers looking to add layers of meaning and symbolism to their next project, look to Taika Waititi and Jojo Rabbit for inspiration. As you can see, it doesn't require a lot to use motifs to create powerful and dramatic moments. A little planning in the screenplay and storyboarding, and that's all it takes.

UP NEXT

Arrival Explained

If you enjoyed this Jojo Rabbit analysis, you're sure to like the other posts and videos in our Director's Playbook series. Check out this breakdown of a scene from Denis Villeneuve's Arrival and how he was able to use shot compositions and camera angles to tread the fine line between intrigue and fear.

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JoJo Rabbit Video Essay - How Motifs Created The Most Powerful Scene

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Jojo Rabbit follows a 10-year-old boy named Johannes Betzler, an idealistic yet misguided Hitler Youth during WWII. He lives with his mother, Rosie, and is often visited by an imaginary friend - a cartoonish version of Adolf Hitler. While attending Hitler Youth Training Camp, Jojo is injured while mishandling a grenade.

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Is Taika Waititi deliberately echoing this horror movie scene?

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Samara Comes to You - The Ring (8/8) Movie CLIP (2002) HD

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Jojo Rabbit

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The History Behind 'Jojo Rabbit' and What It Was Really Like to Be in the Hitler Youth

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"Hitler has made the youth and the youth are ruling Germany," one British Army chaplain, who had been a prisoner of war, said in 1943

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The Cinematography of JoJo Rabbit | Camera & Lighting Breakdown w/ Mihai Malaimare Jr.

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The Cinematography of JoJo Rabbit | Camera & Lighting Breakdown w/ Mihai Malaimare Jr.

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The Cinematography of JoJo Rabbit | Camera & Lighting Breakdown w/ Mihai Malaimare Jr.

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Jojo Rabbit Cast Interviews with Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell and More

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Jojo Rabbit Cast Interviews with Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell and More

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Jojo Rabbit Cast Interviews with Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell and More

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Jojo Rabbit

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On September 1st, 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland. Six years of war would follow with the full participation of the Hitler Youth eventually down to the youngest child.

At the onset of war, the Hitler Youth totaled 8.8 million. But the war brought immediate, drastic changes as over a million Hitler Youth leaders of draft age and regional adult leaders were immediately called up into the army.

This resulted in a severe shortage of local and district leaders. The problem was resolved by lowering the age of local Hitler Youth leaders to 16 and 17. The average age had been 24. These 16 and 17-year-olds would now be responsible for as many as 500 or more boys. Another big change was the elimination of the strict division between the Jungvolk (boys 10 to 14) and the actual HJ (Hitler Youth 14 to 18).

The HJ organization had sprawled into a giant bureaucracy with 14 different regional offices. It was now cut back to just six main offices. Hitler Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach, not wanting to be left out of the war, received Hitler's permission to volunteer for the army. He underwent training and received a rapid rise through the ranks, becoming a lieutenant in just a few months. He was replaced by Artur Axmann, who had headed the HJ Social Affairs Department and had been involved with the organization since the late 1920s.

Inside a sewing room of the BDM in 1942 as Hitler Youth uniforms are brought in to be mended. On the wall hangs a portrait of Hitler saying: "We follow Thee." Below: HJ- Schnellkommandos (Emergency Squads) help put out fires after an Allied air raid on Düsseldorf.

Below: Young replacements huddle in a foxhole on the Russian Front in early 1942--now out of the Hitler Youth and in the German Army--and soon to face the ferocious Red Army.

The war returned a sense of urgency to the daily activities of the Hitler Youth. The organization had experienced a bit of a slump after 1936 when participation had become mandatory. For many young Germans, weekly HJ meetings and required activities had simply become a dreary routine. The original mission of the HJ had been to bring Hitler to power. Victory in the war became the new mission and HJ boys enthusiastically sprang into action, serving as special postmen delivering draft notices in their neighborhoods along with the new monthly ration cards. They also went door to door collecting scrap metals and other needed war materials.
BDM - Girls
Girls also enthusiastically participated, although they were assigned limited duties in keeping with the Nazi viewpoint on the role of females. An old German slogan, popular even during the Nazi era, summed it up - Kinder, Kirche, Küche (Children, Church, Kitchen). The primary role of young females in Nazi Germany was to give birth to healthy, racially pure (according to Nazi standards) boys. All women's organizations were thus regarded as auxiliaries ranking below their male counterparts.

BDM girls were assigned to help care for wounded soldiers in hospitals, to help in kindergartens, and to assist households with large families. They also stood on railway platforms, offering encouragement and refreshments to army troops departing for the front.

Following the rapid German victory over Poland, girls from the Land Service were assigned to the acquired territory in northern Poland (Warthegau) to assist in the massive Nazi repopulation program in which native Poles were forced off their homes and farms by Himmler's SS troops to make way for ethnic Germans. Hitler Youths also assisted in this operation by watching over Polish families as they were evicted from their homes, making sure they took only a few basic possessions. Everything else of value was to be left behind for the Germans.

Hitler considered the war in the East to be a "war of annihilation" in which those considered racially inferior, the Slavs and Jews, would be forcibly resettled or destroyed. Masses of unwanted humanity were thus forced into the southeastern portion of Poland where ghettos sprang up along with slave labor camps and eventually the extermination camps.

Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, ethnic Germans began arriving into the Warthegau from areas of Russia and Eastern Europe. Hitler Youths were utilized to help resettle and Nazify the new arrivals, many of whom did not even speak German. Children of the arrivals were also subject to mandatory participation in the HJ.
Flak Gun Crews
In August 1940, British air raids began against Berlin in retaliation for the German bombing of London. Hitler Youth boys had already been functioning as air raid wardens and anti-aircraft (flak) gun assistants in Berlin and other cities since the outbreak of war, and now saw their first action.

The first thousand-bomber raid occurred in May 1942 against Cologne. In that same month, newly created Wehrertüchtigungslager or WELS (Defense Strengthening Camps) went into operation in Germany providing three weeks of mandatory war training for all boys aged 16 to 18 under the supervision of the Wehrmacht. They learned how to handle German infantry weapons including various pistols, machine-guns, hand grenades and Panzerfausts (German bazookas).

By the beginning of 1943, Hitler's armies were stretched to the limit, battling the combined forces of Soviet Russia, United States, Britain and other Allies. By this time, most able-bodied German men were in the armed services. As a result, starting on January 26, 1943, anti-aircraft batteries were officially manned solely by Hitler Youth boys.

At first they were stationed at flak guns near their homes, but as the overall situation deteriorated, they were transferred all over Germany. The younger boys were assigned to operate search lights and assist with communications, often riding their bicycles as dispatch riders. In October 1943, a search light battery received a direct bomb hit, killing the entire crew of boys, all aged 14 and under.

Following each bombing raid, Hitler Youths assisted in neighborhood cleanup and helped relocate bombed out civilians. They knocked on doors looking for unused rooms in undamaged houses or apartments. Occupants refusing to let in the new 'tenants' were reported to the local police and could likely expect a visit from Gestapo.
KLV Camps
America's entry into the war in December of 1941 had resulted in a massive influx of air power into England. As the Allies stepped up their bombing campaign, the Nazis began evacuating children from threatened cities into Hitler Youth KLV ( Kinderlandverschickung) camps located mainly in the rural regions of East Prussia, the Warthegau section of occupied Poland, Upper Silesia, and Slovakia.

From 1940 to 1945, about 2.8 million German children were sent to these camps. There were separate KLV camps for boys and girls. Some 5,000 camps were eventually in operation, varying greatly in sizes from the smallest which had 18 children to the largest which held 1,200. Each camp was run by a Nazi approved teacher and a Hitler Youth squad leader. The camps replaced big city grammar schools, most of which were closed due to the bombing. Reluctant parents were forced to send their children away to the camps.

Life inside the boys' camp was harsh, featuring a dreary routine of roll calls, paramilitary field exercises, hikes, marches, recitation of Nazi slogans and propaganda, along with endless singing of Hitler Youth songs and Nazi anthems. School work was neglected while supreme emphasis was placed on the boys learning to automatically snap-to attention at any time of the day or night and to obey all orders unconditionally "without any if or buts."

Isolated in these camps and without any counter-balancing influences from a normal home life, the boys descended into a primitive, survival of the fittest mentality. Weakness was despised. Civilized notions of generosity and sympathy for those in need faded. Rigid pecking orders arose in which the youngest and most vulnerable boys were bullied, humiliated, and otherwise made to suffer, including repeated sexual abuse.
Total War - The 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
1943 marked the military turning point for Hitler's Reich. In January, the German Sixth Army was destroyed by the Russians at Stalingrad. In May, the last German strongholds in North Africa fell to the Allies. In July, the massive German counter-attack against the Russians at Kursk failed. The Allies invaded Italy. An Allied invasion of northern Europe was anticipated.

The war could only end with the "unconditional surrender" of Germany and its Axis partners, as stated by President Franklin Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. In February, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels retaliated by issuing a German declaration of "Total War."

Amid a dwindling supply of manpower, the existence of an entire generation of ideologically pure boys, raised as Nazis, eager to fight for the Fatherland and even die for the Führer, could not be ignored. The result was the formation of the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend.

A recruitment drive began, drawing principally on 17-year-old volunteers, but younger members 16 and under eagerly joined. During July and August 1943, some 10,000 recruits arrived at the training camp in Beverloo, Belgium.

To fill out the HJ Division with enough experienced soldiers and officers, Waffen-SS survivors from the Russian Front, including members of the elite Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler, were brought in. Fifty officers from the Wehrmacht, who were former Hitler Youth leaders, were also reassigned to the division. The remaining shortage of squad and section leaders was filled with Hitler Youth members who had demonstrated leadership aptitude during HJ paramilitary training exercises. The division was placed under of the command of 34-year-old Major General Fritz Witt, who had also been a Hitler Youth, dating back before 1933.

Among his young troops, morale was high. Traditional, stiff German codes of conduct between officers and soldiers were replaced by more informal relationships in which young soldiers were often given the reasons behind orders. Unnecessary drills, such as goose-step marching were eliminated. Lessons learned on the Russian Front were applied during training to emphasize realistic battlefield conditions, including the use of live ammunition.

Northern Belgium early 1944--Members of the SS-Division Hitlerjugend stand in front of their Panzer IV tanks ready for the arrival of Field Marshal Rundstedt. Below: A young machine-gunner totes an MG-42 at Caen in northern France shortly after D-Day.

By the spring of 1944, training was complete. The HJ Panzer Division, now fully trained and equipped, conducted divisional maneuvers observed by General Heinz Guderian and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, both of whom admired the enthusiasm and expressed their high approval of the proficiency achieved by the young troops in such a short time. The division was then transferred to Hasselt, Belgium, in anticipation of D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. A few days before the invasion, SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler visited the division.

On D-Day, June 6th, 1944, the HJ Division was one of three Panzer divisions held in reserve by Hitler as the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy beginning at dawn. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the HJ Division was released and sent to Caen, located not far inland from Sword and Juno beaches on which British and Canadian troops had landed. The division soon came under heavy strafing attacks from Allied fighter bombers, which delayed arrival there until 10 p.m.

The HJ were off to face an enemy that now had overwhelming air superiority and would soon have nearly unlimited artillery support. The Allies, for their part, were about to have their first encounter with Hitler's fanatical boy-soldiers.

The shocking fanaticism and reckless bravery of the Hitler Youth in battle astounded the British and Canadians who fought them. They sprang like wolves against tanks. If they were encircled or outnumbered, they fought-on until there were no survivors. Young boys, years away from their first shave, had to be shot dead by Allied soldiers, old enough, in some cases, to be their fathers. The "fearless, cruel, domineering" youth Hitler had wanted had now come of age and arrived on the battlefield with utter contempt for danger and little regard for their own lives. This soon resulted in the near destruction of the entire division.

By the end of its first month in battle, 60 percent of the HJ Division was knocked out of action, with 20 percent killed and the rest wounded and missing. Divisional Commander Witt was killed by a direct hit on his headquarters from a British warship. Command then passed to Kurt Meyer, nicknamed 'Panzermeyer,' who at age 33, became the youngest divisional commander in the entire German armed forces.

After Caen fell to the British, the HJ Division was withdrawn from the Normandy Front. The once confident fresh-faced Nazi youths were now exhausted and filthy, a sight which "presented a picture of deep human misery" as described by Meyer.

In August, the Germans mounted a big counter-offensive toward Avranches, but were pushed back from the north by the British and Canadians, and by the Americans from the west, into the area around Falaise. Twenty four German divisions were trapped inside the Falaise Pocket with a narrow 20 mile gap existing as the sole avenue of escape. The HJ Division was sent to keep the northern edge of this gap open.

However, Allied air superiority and massive artillery barrages smashed the HJ as well as the Germans trapped inside the pocket. Over 5,000 armored vehicles were destroyed, with 50,000 Germans captured, while 20,000 managed to escape, including the tattered remnants of the HJ.

By September 1944, the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend numbered only 600 surviving young soldiers, with no tanks and no ammunition. Over 9,000 had been lost in Normandy and Falaise. The division continued to exist in name only for the duration of the war, as even younger (and still eager) volunteers were brought in along with a hodgepodge of conscripts. The division participated in the failed Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Offensive) and was then sent to Hungary where it participated in the failed attempt to recapture Budapest. On May 8, 1945, numbering just 455 soldiers and one tank, the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend surrendered to the American 7th Army.
Volkssturm - The Final Defense

On the German home front, HJ boys clean up the rubble after yet another air raid. Below: Decorated HJ flak helpers are seen during a war rally held amid Germany's declining fortunes.

Below: The last reserves--ever younger--learn how to fire anti-tank Panzerfausts to stop the Russians.

Below: Near the end--April 20th, 1945--the Führer with Hitler Youths outside his Berlin bunker.

Hitler's own generals tried to assassinate him on July 20, 1944, to end Nazi Germany's all-out commitment to a war that was now clearly lost. But the assassination attempt failed. Hitler took revenge by purging the General Staff of anyone deemed suspicious or exhibiting defeatist behavior. Nearly 200 officers and others were killed, in some cases, slowly hanged from meat hooks.

Germany under Hitler would now fight-on to the very last, utilizing every available human and material resource. In September, Hitler Youth Leader Artur Axmann proclaimed: "As the sixth year of war begins, Adolf Hitler's youth stands prepared to fight resolutely and with dedication for the freedom of their lives and their future. We say to them: You must decide whether you want to be the last of an unworthy race despised by future generations, or whether you want to be part of a new time, marvelous beyond all imagination."

With the Waffen-SS and regular army now depleted of men, Hitler ordered Hitler Youth boys as young as fifteen to be trained as replacements and sent to the Russian Front. Everyone, both young and old, would be thrown into the final fight to stop the onslaught of "Bolshevik hordes" from the East and "Anglo-American gangsters" from the West.

On September 25, 1944, anticipating the invasion of the German Fatherland, the Volkssturm (People's Army) was formed under the overall command of Heinrich Himmler. Every available male aged 16 to 60 was conscripted into this new army and trained to use the Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon. Objections to using even younger boys were ignored.

In the Ruhr area of Germany, HJ boys practiced guerilla warfare against invading U.S. troops. In the forests, the boys stayed hidden until the tanks had passed, waiting for the foot soldiers. They would then spring up, shoot at them and throw grenades, inflicting heavy causalities, then dash away and disappear back into the forest. The Americans retaliated with furious air-attacks and leveled several villages in the surrounding area.

If the boys happened to get cornered by American patrols, they often battled until the last boy was killed rather than surrender. And the boys kept getting younger. American troops reported capturing armed 8-year-olds at Aachen in Western Germany and knocking out artillery units operated entirely by boys aged twelve and under. Girls were also used now, operating the 88mm anti-aircraft guns alongside the boys.

In February 1945, project Werewolf began, training German children as spies and saboteurs, intending to send them behind Allied lines with explosives and arsenic. But the project came to nothing as most of these would-be saboteurs were quickly captured or killed by the Allies as they advanced into the Reich.

The Russians by now were roaring toward Berlin, capitol of Nazi Germany, where Hitler had chosen to make his last stand. On April 23rd, battalions made up entirely of Hitler Youths were formed to hold the Pichelsdorf bridges by the Havel River. These bridges in Berlin were supposed to be used by General Wenck's relief army coming from the south. That army, unknown to the boys, had already been destroyed and now existed on paper only. It was one of several phantom armies being commanded by Hitler to save encircled Berlin.

At the Pichelsdorf bridges, 5,000 boys, wearing man-sized uniforms several sizes too big and helmets that flopped around on their heads, stood by with rifles and Panzerfausts, ready to oppose the Russian Army. Within five days of battle, 4,500 had been killed or wounded. In other parts of Berlin, HJ boys met similar fates. Many committed suicide rather than be taken alive by the Russians.

All over the city, every able-bodied male was pressed into the desperate final struggle. Anyone fleeing or refusing to go to the front lines was shot or hanged on the spot by SS executioners roaming the streets hunting for deserters.

In his last public appearance, just ten days before his death, Adolf Hitler ventured out of his Berlin bunker on his 56th birthday into the Chancellery garden to decorate twelve-year-old Hitler Youths with Iron Crosses for their heroism in the defense of Berlin. The extraordinary event was captured on film and remains one of the most enduring images chronicling the collapse of Hitler's thousand-year Reich, as the tottering, senile-looking Führer is seen congratulating little boys staring at him with worshipful admiration. They were then sent back out into the streets to continue the hopeless fight.

On April 30, 1945, as the Russians advanced to within a few hundred yards of his bunker, Hitler committed suicide. The next day, Hitler Youth Leader Artur Axmann, who had been commanding an HJ battalion in Berlin, abandoned his boys and fled to the Alps. In Vienna, Baldur von Schirach abandoned HJ units fighting to defend that city.

The war ended with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945. However, it was soon realized that this defeat was unlike any other in history. In addition to his war of military conquest, Hitler had also waged a war against defenseless civilians. The events of that war, revealed in the coming months during the Nuremberg trials, would stun the world, and even resulted in a new term to describe the systematic killing of an entire race of people - genocide.

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The History Place - Hitler Youth: Hitler's Boy Soldiers 1939-1945

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On September 1st, 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland. Six years of war would follow with the full participation of the Hitler Youth eventually down to the youngest child. At the onset of war, the Hitler Youth totaled 8.8 million.