Key Scenes/Ideas

Jojo is a character who has fallen completely prey to the Nazi project and its propaganda, primarily its anti-Semitic bent. Like most German kids his age, he grows up fearing Jews, and thinking they are evil. As he gets to know Elsa, however, Jojo learns that life is often different than the propaganda distributed by the Nazis makes it seem. The film stages the ways that propaganda and prescriptive political views force people to ignore their individual perceptions and understandings of events and people.

In Part I, Jojo often imagines that Hitler is with him, giving him advice and acting as a kind of voice of reason in his life, urging him to be more patriotic and become a better Nazi. "I don't think I can do this," Jojo says to imaginary Hitler in the opening scene. Hitler urges him that he is up to it. In the opening sequence of the film, we see Jojo running through the streets as a German version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles plays. Over this opening sequence we see footage of Nazi rallies.

A variety of other scenes from the film can be found in GradeSaver's study guide for the unit.