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Fox Searchlight and USC Shoah Foundation Partner on ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Education Initiative

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December 19, 2019
(From L-R): Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) has dinner with his imaginary friend Adolf (Writer/Director Taika Waititi), and his mother, Rosie (Scarlet Johansson). Photo by Kimberley French. 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Following the buzz and critical acclaim of Taika Waititi’s award-winning nazi-satire film “Jojo Rabbit,” the USC Shoah Foundation and Fox Searchlight Pictures announced Dec. 19 a new partnership to develop classroom curriculum around the Holocaust and propaganda.

“Jojo Rabbit” follows a lonely German boy whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it won the Audience Award, uses humor to explore the power of propaganda and the impact evil ideologies can have on children.

USC Shoah Foundation said in a statement that, “Jojo Rabbit” demonstrates how individuals can overcome ingrained prejudices and hate— components USC Shoah Foundation, with a deep history of Holocaust scholarship and developing transformative learning tools, will deploy during the partnership.

The new education initiative will bring together the powerful anti-hate message of the film with Holocaust survivor testimony from the Institute’s Visual History Archive (VHA). Through several resources for educators, classroom-ready activities incorporating clips and content from the film and a dedicated landing page on the Institute’s IWitness website, these educational resources aim to help students understand the peril of prejudice, anti-Semitism, and bigotry as well as the power of individual agency and resiliency.

According to the Shoah Foundation, a dedicated page for the partnership has been created, to which over 175K+users worldwide will have access – all 50 states and 89 countries.

The IWitness Teaching with Film – Jojo Rabbit contains testimonies from survivors who speak about Hitler youth-related experiences including one of Eva Brewster, who grew up in Berlin. The page also includes four ready-to use activities on topics such as propaganda, hiding and antisemitism; supporting resources; eight clips of testimony and featurettes from “Jojo Rabbit” and additional information about the film.

In January 2020 Shoah Foundation will add three additional activities, one of which will be in Hungarian since the film debuts in Hungary in mid January.

Waititi who was a writer-director-producer-actor on the project told the Journal in October that though the film contains many adult themes, its purpose is to reach the humanity and pathos children have when viewing the world.

“I tried to see how many conflicts there had been since World War II, after they said, ‘Well we should never fight again. Let’s never forget what happened.’ I gave up because s— happened since then,” Waititi said. “I think about the children and all of those conflicts, and [children] don’t really know why people are fighting. We should be mentoring them and being those beacons of hope. How are they supposed to grow up having tolerance or hope in humanity if this is the chaos they see?”

He added: “I couldn’t predict that it would be more relevant now. I like how we need to better serve children and guide them to a better future.”

The partnership hopes to show the power of propaganda and depiction of how the Hitler Youth and Nazi fanaticism brainwashed millions of children in Nazi Germany, to make relevant important lessons of the past to teenagers today.

“We give students the opportunity to explore their own attitudes and learn how to question hate, just as the young boy Jojo ultimately does. The film depicts how easily hate can find a home in the very young, which is still true today and the reason behind our urgent work to develop empathy, understanding and respect,” said Stephen D. Smith, executive director of USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO chair on genocide education.

Claudia Ramirez Wiedeman, PhD, USC Shoah Foundation Director of Education added that the film, “is a smart satire that, with the support of an educational program that provides the context and human impact of hate, has the power to extend Holocaust and anti-hate education to the next generation. It’s critically important as educators that we find new and innovative ways to reach young people, and movies have the power to do just that.”

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