"I’ll let you in on a little secret. The rabbit is no coward. The humble little bunny faces a dangerous world every day, hunting carrots for his family, for his country. My empire will be full of all animals, lions, giraffes, zebras, rhinoceroses, octopuses, rhineoctopuses, even the mighty rabbit. [...] Let me give you some really good advice. Be the rabbit. The humble bunny can outwit all of his enemies. He’s brave, and sneaky, and strong. Be the rabbit."
After Jojo has been made fun of for refusing to kill a rabbit, and is subsequently given his titular nickname, Adolf takes something that Jojo is insecure about, being a "rabbit" or a coward, and spins it into something positive to motivate him. The imaginary version of Adolf Hitler often acts as a (skewed) conscience and motivator for the scrawny Jojo Betzler.
"Love is the strongest thing in the world."
Rosie, the resistance fighter, says this to her serious and stubborn son, Jojo. She tries to dissuade him from going along with the hateful message of Hitler's platform and instead embrace the power of love.
"You're not a Nazi, Jojo. You're a ten-year-old kid who likes dressing up in a funny uniform and wants to be a part of a club, but you're not like them."
Here, Elsa calls out Jojo's faux-Nazism. Jojo may wear the uniform, salute Hitler, and parrot the anti-Jew rhetoric he's been taught, but Elsa believes that none of that is genuine and that deep down Jojo is a good person. Rather than a "real" Nazi, Jojo is just a misguided child who was manipulated by propaganda, and is still able to change. As their intimacy grows, Elsa feels able to break through Jojo's exterior and speak to his moral sense.
"Now, get your things together, kids. It’s time to burn some books!"
This is one of the dark jokes in the script. At Nazi soldier camp, the mercenary and dim-witted Fraulein Rahm invites the students to engage in the act of burning books—which Nazis actually did—but she frames it as a fun game, and the children cheer. This is one of the many moments in which screenwriter Taiki Waititi makes light of Nazi activities.
"Enjoy the attention, kid. Not everyone’s lucky enough to look stupid. I for one am cursed to look incredibly attractive. Now, we’re going to pluck up your courage, walk out that door, and have an incredible adventure. Okay?"
When Jojo returns from the hospital after his grenade accident, he is self-conscious about the way he looks. His charming mother, Rosie, who is ever the optimist, tries to put a fun spin on his new appearance, suggesting that to look stupid is to attract attention.
"Don’t make me run, kid. I’m far too hungry, and you know how much we love the taste of blood."
When Jojo first finds Elsa in the attic, she runs after him as he goes towards the door. She threatens him with this line, pretending that she is as monstrous as the Nazis would like to believe she is. In this moment, we see what a clever and tough girl Elsa is.
"They’ll never win. That’s the power you have. As long as there’s someone alive somewhere, then they lose. They didn’t get you yesterday, or today, and tomorrow, the same."
In their first private meeting in the attic, Rosie tells Elsa that all she must do to keep fighting back against the Nazis is to stay alive. Rosie insists that Elsa's resilience and ability to survive is all she has in the fight, but that it makes a huge difference in the war.
"Get away! Get away, Jew! Get away!"
Klezendorf says this performatively at the end of the film as a way of finding Jojo a way to escape persecution from the Allied Forces. Since the Allies have won the war, they are now rounding up Nazis to execute. Having taken a liking to Jojo, Klezendorf elects to help the boy by pretending he is Jewish, so that the Allied Forces let Jojo go free.
"Fuck off, Hitler!"
Finally, at the end of the film, when the war is over, Jojo denounces the imaginary Hitler that has been following him around for the whole film. He banishes him from the apartment and kicks him out the window with this line.
"Life is a gift. We must celebrate it. We have to dance, to show God we are grateful to be alive."
In an argument with her precocious Nazi child, Rosie says this as a way of making a case for celebrating life and finding pleasure. Even in times of disaster and crisis, she suggests, people must find ways to be happy and feel good.
