Fox Searchlight and the Show Foundation are partnering up for an education initiative that will help broaden the anti-hate message of the film. Jojo Rabbit is, of course, a movie about how easy it is, especially if you are someone feeling isolated and bullied, to get swept up in waves of hatred, bigotry and fascism. Here is the press release:
USC Shoah Foundation’s JOJO RABBIT 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 a robust suite of 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 will help students understand the peril of prejudice, anti-semitism, and bigotry as well as the power of individual agency and resiliency. The partnership will leverage the historical aspects of the film, such as 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,” stated Stephen D. Smith, PhD, Finci-Viterbi executive director of USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO chair on genocide education.
Claudia Ramirez Wiedeman, PhD, USC Shoah Foundation Director of Education added, “JOJO RABBIT 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. Pairing content from JOJO RABBIT with survivor testimony will allow the generation that bore witness to the tragedies of the Holocaust to speak to the next, teaching students not much older that JoJo and Elsa from the film about how to confront intolerance and bigotry in society, and inspire the individual agency that can create change in their own communities.”
