Directed by: Taika Waititi

Screenplay by: Taika Waititi

Starring: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Alfie Allen, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson

Plot:

Johannes “Jojo” Betzler, a Hitler Youth member finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. He must then question his beliefs, while dealing with the intervention of his imaginary friend, a fanciful version of Adolf Hitler.

SPACE: Germany

TIME: 1944 - 1945

Fun facts:

• Hitler Youth, German Hitlerjugend, organization set up by Adolf Hitler in 1933 for educating and training male youth in Nazi principles. Under the leadership of Baldur von Schirach, head of all German youth programs, the Hitler Youth included by 1935 almost 60 percent of German boys. On July 1, 1936, it became a state agency that all young “Aryan” Germans were expected to join.

• Upon reaching his 10th birthday, a German boy was registered and investigated (especially for “racial purity”) and, if qualified, inducted into the Deutsches Jungvolk (“German Young People”). At age 13 the youth became eligible for the Hitler Youth, from which he was graduated at age 18. Throughout these years he lived a spartan life of dedication, fellowship, and Nazi conformity, generally with minimum parental guidance. From age 18 he was a member of the Nazi Party and served in the state labour service and the armed forces until at least the age of 21.

• Two leagues also existed for girls. The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel) trained girls ages 14 to 18 for comradeship, domestic duties, and motherhood. Jungmädel (“Young Girls”) was an organization for girls ages 10 to 14.

• The Hitler Youth were used to spy on religious classes, Bible studies and other youth organisations.
• As the war deepened and Germany was running out of men, Hitler Youth were used to fill some positions normally associated with the military within Germany. They were used to supplant the local Volkssturm (local militia) units in some places. They also manned anti-aircraft guns. Some, even though still children, were formed into actual military units in the closing months of the war and were expected to fight to the death.

• One battle in the taking of Berlin had a unit of Hitler Youth helping defend the Reichstag (symbolically, thought of by Germans the same way Americans think of the U.S. Capital building). By most accounts they fought fanatically to the death there. Casualty estimates on the Soviet side run as high as 10,000 in the taking of that building. While records are sketchy, there is no doubt it was a bloodbath, and kids were doing the killing.