Remembering With A Twist - A Jojo Rabbit & The Book Thief Video Essay
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2024
- This video has been in varying states of production since January. The video was like 75% written and edited before police violence broke out across the US in May of 2020. If you are also concerned with racial inequality and police accountability here are a few organizations that could use your support
The NAACP Legal Fund: www.naacpldf.org/support/
Campaign Zero: www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision
The National Police Accountability Project: www.nlg-npap.org/
The Emergency Release Fund: emergencyreleasefund.com/about/
The National Lawyer’s Guild: www.nlg.org/
Black Visions Collective: www.blackvisionsmn.org/
And I highly recommend you look up your local foodbank or bail fund and donate there.
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Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/
Fanart used with permission from
James Firnhaber: / jamesfirnhaber
Erik Krenz: erikkrenzprints.squarespace.com/
Risa Rodil: www.risarodil.com
VHS Effects and Book Thief Illustration Animation done by Jeremy Bailey Jebailey97
This is the song I quoted at the end of the video by the way, by John Darnielle and his band The Mountain Goats, if anybody else needs an anthem right now, this is mine.
• The Mountain Goats - T...
If anybody wants to go listen to that cover of Hallelujah it's here / hallelujah-cover
If you would like to learn more about the history of antisemitism this video is a good place to start
• Antisemitism: An Analy...
And due to CZcams’s character limit on the info, you can find all my sources and research here / 38153759
0:00 - Intro
3:05 - Chapter 1: The Righteous Gentile
10:25 - Chapter 2: Juden
18:32 - Chapter 3: Imaginary Hitler & Death
23:40 - Chapter 4: Bigotry & Satire
33:07 - Chapter 5: The Turn
46:55 - Chapter 6: Never Forget - Zábava
![[Excerpt] A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Blood and Ash Book 2) | Jennifer L. Armentrout | Part 03](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pyvh3pWGySs/mqdefault.jpg)
![tattoo printer tutorial[제품단순선물]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/g40_GwEJak0/mqdefault.jpg)
The fact that taika thinks the audience doesnt have the right to see rosie like that is why i love him as a director
I agree.
Yes this!
Something I really like about Jojo is that Elsa never really does anything to prove herself. In most movies where 2 characters don't like each other, one of them always does something heroic- like saving them from a fatal accident- in order to prove themselves worthy. But Elsa doesn't, because she doesn't need to, she's human and that's enough.
I dunno. She genuinely *does* do heroic things; she wrestles him with that incredible speech, steals his knife, outsmarts him constantly, tanks a stab wound like an action hero, and bluffs her way through an entire room of SS operatives, to say nothing of what she had to do to get to that room in the first place. Jojo's love for her clearly does come from a place of respect, while hers is based on empathy and trying to find a connection, even mourning the last person she knew who helped her.
@@Glowinghole Yes but she did all of that because she wanted to, not because she needed to impress him. She even "tricks" him in the beginning, by playing along with the stereotypes and scaring him coming down the stairs - that's arguably a stupid thing to do because it will make him belive she is all those stereoptypical things but she's a teennager and acts like a tennager would. She's not there to prove anything she's just being herself
D
@@panterloart9180 techically, she was doing it to survive, not because she wanted to
iibbbbbbbiibibbb
Fun fact: both captain Finkel and captain K’s flashy uniforms have upside down pink triangles on them (Finkel’s are visible on his cape and helmet at 45:13 and K’s is on his breast pocket at 45:35) and by fun fact I mean this movie makes me sad
somehow i didn't notice this while watching. thanks for pointing this out
Yes, that was the symbol of the gays :(
It's refreshing to see someone take the time to discuss Jojo Rabbit in the manner it deserves. I just watched it for the first time about a week ago and couldn't believe how many criminally shallow negative reviews it got from seemingly prominent film critics. Many of them could have only been written by people who either only watched the trailer or are adults who are as naive as Jojo was at the beginning of the movie.
I feel like movie critics nowadays are archaic. People don’t like being told what is good and what is bad, they want to know it for themselves. And with internet you can. Back then when movie review was the only thing you could read to decide if you wanted to see the movie or not, you just had to trust the critic and then pay to see the movie. Now with internet, you can just pay for the whole service and see the movie at a fraction of the price. Then you know if you liked it or not. And the critics nowadays only care about trendy things (not all of them obviously there are still proffesional people) so they go with the flow and then a dishonest review is born.
I loved the movie because it didn’t go with the flow. Just like LadyKnight said in the video, you become numb to this if you seen it a thousand times and my teacher was teaching us about holocaust almost every class, so I just don’t care about being told the horrors. But Taika’s take on the holocaust really did something I admire. I understood the message betwen the lines but I did not hate it, because it was being subtle and yet powerfull. If Taika showed the face or Rosie, I would be like “meh” but he didn’t and I didn’t realise how powerfull it was until this video. He made a really good job on this movie and I love his work
@@honzasenbauer612 I feel like most critics feels like they have to be stricter and use as much metaphors to be seen as critics. It pains me to hear that these professional critics gave bad reviews to a seemingly well-meaning movie. It is not a movie the world wanted and it is definitely not going with the trend, but it is something we needed.
Also, Jojo is a kid and the movie is from his POV so of course the movie will be silly and playful despite of the horror of the time, which unfortunately went through some critics’ and viewers’ head😔😔 and they never tried to understand it.
As a Native, being a side character in the story of your genocide has always hurt. Seeing the white savior when your family hid from the state for generations, running guns to protect your people from a nation you are supposed to love... I feel your pain
I felt the same way as a Black woman. The horror of the Transatlantic Slave Trade still has repercussions even now; the dehumanising of Black people, the way our history is either undermined and shrugged off with indifference or just a way to create a story praising the good nature of white saviours, the modern fallout which is used to demean and mock us etc. I empathise.
The most unfortunate thing is that the only way that other races’ lives can be better is through its oppressors as no one listened to anyone unless you’re white. Well, there’s another way which is genocide but we don’t really want that. And people has to stay grateful for it! Grateful to the fact that white saviours helped others when the only reason that they were oppressed was due to them! Of course, not everyone is bad and people is grateful for saving them but all i mean is that it is unfortunate and apparently the sad truth
As a Filipino whose history and atrocities (being done to us) is continuously shoved down and forgotten, I understand. Even in history books, it was always McArthur and the Americans who saved us from the Spaniards and the Japanese years ago. Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t carry hatred to the people of today, just the past. They did ‘save’ us from them but doesn’t mean they didn’t do bad things to the people of the past. They profited out of Philippines and let’s be honest, no conquerors conquers land out of pure goodness. If it is, it is rare! Even conquering itself results to bad things. Racism also happened which is 🤮. And it saddens me about how blind we are to it. Yes! Be thankful to them, but literally all the bad things they’ve done to us remained hidden. Heck! English is our second language and is continuously used for academics to the point that we are losing our own colours. Or maybe it is just me?
Um, I was told jojo rabbit was a bad movie, I WAS LIED TO
About the book Jojo is based on (it's terrible, absolutely so), but I remember seeing an interview with Waititi where he said he read the book because it was highly recommended to him. He had very high hopes for it and then was so sorely heartbroken and infuriated when he actually read it (a nazi sheltering a jewish girl coerces her into a romantic relationship and this actually admired in the book), so he said fuck that and made the movie about what he had hoped the book would be.
I'm not Jewish, but my country (the Philippines) was one of the very first countries to open its doors to Jewish refugees (even though the US colonial government limited it somewhat) even before the war broke out. We have also opened our doors to White Russians, Vietnamese refugees, Iranian refugees, Kuomintang refugees, Syrian refugees, and even tried to take in the Rohingya when their fellow Muslim countries refused them. My mother country is poor, often overlooked, insulted, and misrepresented, but this is something I can be proud of. During the darkest period of human history, we remained human.
Wow that’s really interesting and I can’t believe I’d never heard of it before. That’s definitely something to be proud of, wish more countries were like that. :(
That last sentiment you shared there is extremely beautiful. I didn’t know this about the Philippines - thank you so much for sharing this
Just to clarify, do you mean White Russians as in white people or White Russians as those who were on the side of the White Army.
@@Redbird-dh7mu The latter. White Russians as in the opposite of Red Russians. The anti-communist Russians who were defeated in the Russian Civil War of 1917 and went into mass exile.
The fact that out hospitality has always been presented in modern interpretations as being kind to white foreigners (usually to appease the americans) for their money instead of the true sacrifice and danger we've put ourselves in because of our compassion to these poor, wronged people has always angered me. Its just-- hospitality-- opening our doors when the world collectively shut theirs from refugees of all kinds is something that draws blood-- both from sacrifice and brotherhood and Im proud that us filipinos have that history of hospitality. Being compassionate, especially when its inconvenient, is a sign of true humanity.
I love your tabs at 27:38
"Ugh, Nazi's"
"Nazi's I hate these guys"
"Are you seriously still reading the tabs"
Magnifique *chefs kiss*
Got to appreciate how a New Zealander Jew was able to play the most infamous symbol of antisemitism and just general hatred of anything not like you, in a parody, and was amazingly GREAT.
As a korean whose grandparents' generation had to live through Japanese colonization, this video really hits different. For us, colonization lasted 35 years (which is not that long a time compared to others), but impacts made in that ‘short’ span of time haunts us to this day. At the time, people were assigned new Japanese names, were forced to cut their hair to rid of our culture, people were dragged off to mines to work as slaves, experimented upon, and so much more. And yet there are still people trying to justify this by the ‘resulting’ technological advancement, and to erase/minimize that part of history altogether which is so deeply frustrating. Thanks for showing that similar perspective in a different culture. I cried a lot.
I understand you. Development and progress must not come at human’s lives cost.
Hello, fellow Korean here! I recently read When My Name Was Keoko for an English assignment, and it absolutely wrecked me. Seeing the comforts of the Korean home I grew up with be actively oppressed and regarded as a crime wrang my heart dry, and the pain just kept coming. I highly recommend it to not just fellow Koreans but to anyone looking for a good read.
Ugh yeah and they infantilize Japan so much nowadays. Praises them so much. Puts them on a pedestal.
"I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't even grow a full moustache" - that line always makes me cry even in the midst of such a busy and in many ways comic scene, and I think it's because this exact kind of wilful defiant resistance that I love where the oppressed turn that language back on the fascists. It's so powerful to me because it doesn't buy into any actual sense of hierarchy or superiority, it's just powerfully and undeniably stating that everything the fascists believe is wrong. I'm getting a tattoo soon to commemorate my transition, that I commissioned another trans friend to design for me, and I've incorporated the words "wheat but not bread, fruit but not wine" into it because of the quote "God blessed me by making me transsexual the way He made wheat but not bread or fruit but not wine".
I've been thinking about violent systemic murderous fascism a lot more recently, more than I even did when Trump came to power, because every day in the UK things look worse and worse for trans people. In particular the government is making surreptitious moves to punish the people it deems sex offenders more and more severely. I've always been a keen history student and I know the first camps were opened ostensibly for "sex offenders" but really for queer people, and the first tests of the nazi death machine were carried out on the mentally disabled. I'm more scared here all the time and I want to get out of this country because the way our government and media talks about trans people isn't like anywhere else in the world.
So this video meant a lot, and I know a lot of other people also found it deeply moving, and I wanted to say thank you for making it
Thank you so much, I'm so glad you liked it!!
That tattoo idea is brilliant and beautiful.
"survive out of spite if you must"
I'm a 15 year old asexual Hispanic boy, I'll never pretend to understand how the holocaust has effected you but as someone who understands what generational oppression feels like, I want to thank you for making me cry like 3 times
I am a Jewish woman and what you said in the beginning about feeling like you were born with the knowledge of the Holocaust really struck a nerve with me. It has always been a shadowy figure in the background of my upbringing and I distinctly remember the first time I found out that not everyone grew up with the bitterness of “Shoah” in the back of their throat it was a gigantic culture shock. Thank you for this video, it put into words so many of my feelings.
This is also my experience, but I’d never thought to put it into words like LadyKnight did here. I am moved.
I’m Chinese and feel this way about The Great Famine. It’s doubly painful that most non-Chinese don’t know about it; the only inkling of awareness is the US is when parents would guilt their children into eating by saying “there are starving kids in China.”
I know your comment is two years old, but I still remember when my 12 year old (at the time) gentile stepsister asked me what Hitler "did". It threw me for a total loop because I couldn't believe it was possible to get that far without learning about the Shoah. Made me feel a bit sick honestly.
Also, did anyone notice Captain K holding Finkel’s cape in his final scene? I think it implies he died prior to Captain K (I’d also mention the pink triangle imagery but i think everyone’s very aware of that already)
What does the pink triangle mean?
@@mayakane9978 it was a way that nazi germany identified gay people
I read that there was a deleted part of the script where he actually said that Finkel was gone.
@@getolde7966 that's interesting! i must say the whole thing was a bit odd because i was like "i love to see gay rep but are they fighting FOR the nazis right now??"
@@nobunnyspecial it's not like they had a choice and it's been shown that Captain K isn't just someone who stands by
As a Romani I’m actually kinda happy that you named us as usually we aren’t remembered and now maybe someone could be interested enough in looking up at the horrors that we have undergone. It is sad that both Jews and Romani are now seen as just a tragic B-plot in cinema this was a beautiful video
Hearing people make constant insensitive jokes about the holocaust or Jewish people, even as someone who has no connection, is heartbreaking. Why must one feel the need to make fun of suffering? People say it's just "dark humor", but why must your dark humor be literal hate speech? Why are you making fun of Jewish people when the Nazis are right there? Movies like Jojo show that you can make "dark jokes" without punching down, and instead remove the air of "coolness" and "power" around the Nazis. If we keep speaking about them like they were so "strong" then they'll once again be strong.
Because it's not "cool" or edgy. People don't like """woke""" jokes (an example of this is the phrase "the left can't meme", that has been watered down to "you're trying to have basic human empathy, that probably means you're a fucking comunist"). Being more right wing leaning is deemed cooler and edgier
@@Otra_Chica_de_Internet there's also some people on the verge of escaping that bigotry on their own. They desperately lean on their poor out of taste jokes and hatred more than ever at those points as they feel what they've begun to think is wrong and try to return to what they thought was once right.
Why do people make 9/11 memes? Why do people make jokes about the Vietnam War? Why do people make dark jokes in general? There are a few reasons, coping, trying to be funny, or, maybe, they just hate being told that you can’t joke about a specific subject. They could also just be bigoted, but I think the answer isn’t as simple as just bigotry.
@@Redbird-dh7mu I don't think jokes are the problem, but the focus of the jokes.
You know what I want? I want a WWII book or movie where the protagonist is a young Jewish woman (20-25 y/o) imprisoned at Ravensbrück who, along with other young Jewish women in her work section, would scratch up the metallic coating of the ignition chambers (IDK anything about explosives LOL) of rockets they were forced to assemble for the Nazis, rendering the rocket useless. They didn't do it to all of them because the Nazis would have quickly tied malfunctions back to factory tampering, but they did what they could to sabotage their oppressors.
My mother's second cousin was that young woman. She rebelled however she could, once even staring down the barrel of an SS officer's gun, and lived to share her stories. She said that the only reason she (and many of her peers) survived 3 years in the camps was due to her youth; she had a strong constitution and a stronger will.
We need to shift the dominant narrative from the Righteous Gentile to the Strong-Willed Jew/Romani/Marginalized Person. Make the survivors the heroes of their own stories.
Maybe the story could include a rabbi who conjures up a golem out of mud, and the golem helps with the sabotage, eventually transforming into a strong-willed Jew who is so handsome that all the SS guards swoon at the sight of him and become ardent pacifists. This would almost make for a full movie treatment in itself; all we need is to work in vampires and space aliens and we have everything needed for a blockbuster.
That reminds me of a book I read in English, called Making Bombs for Hitler. It wasn't a Jewish woman, but a Ukrainian teenager who was imprisoned in a work camp. When the Nazi's were invading the Soviet Union, she was captured and separated from her younger sister, and sent to a work camp. She and a few of her friends, one her closest friends secretly being a Jew who managed to escape being sent to a death camp, were forced to work in a factory where they assembled bombs for the Nazi army. Eventually, they came up with a plan to secretly sabotage some of the bombs so that they wouldn't work when dropped.
There's a lot more to the story, but your comment reminded me of that bit of it. The story was inspired by the tale of a woman the author knew, I forgot her exact connection to the woman though.
@@wb6wsn If this comment had a face I would punch it.
That would be an awesome story!!! A story about simple tasks gradually becoming one of the most important act of rebellion towards them.
All I wanted to see from Hollywood movies (because it is mainstream) is to seriously get rid of the white saviour complex that they keep on adding. Like we get that They need to cater to white audiences 🙄 but also there are more stories to tell and tomes have changed.
Leave the movie to the people who are part of the oppressed! Of course, I don’t mean to minimize the influence of the saviours that did help but all i am saying is that we have enough of that.
But how about a movie about the Holocaust in the Jewish POV? How about Slavery in the former Slaves POV? (I realized that there are some movie like this but mostly are of white saviours) How about a Native American oppressed story with a Native American Main lead? And this goes on for every oppression that ever happens (which honestly can make more than enough movies in order to educate the future generations).
This was beautiful. I cried twice. With everything going on right now, as a black person there’s a lot of history to reckon with in my ancestry right now, and though this is specific to the experience of Jewish people during the Holocaust, it makes a lot of beautiful points of how it feel to be a minority and wake up everyday and take a breath and know you’re still living. Thank you
Stay safe friend. Its a hard time out there, I'm glad you found this helpful.
@@Ladyknightthebrave got to say, A] another member of the tribe. nice! B] this was like all your other essays pretty powerful and meaningful. I can say that YOU are just another Lantern in the darkness to guide our way home. my Zadie was captured by Nazi's and growing up with him telling stories, you never forget the horror that not just jews, but the romani, blacks, LGBT+,etc had to go through. It's just hell.....
My favourite quote from the Book Thief, Death speaking of soldiers: “A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.”
It's a humbling line, all our "enemies" are fabricated by the powerful who stand to gain from division. We're all just people running towards death from different sides. The clearer that becomes the clearer it becomes that there are very few people out there who I would actually consider an enemy.
"Survive out of spite if you must." This rings so true as to my experience as a trans woman and college student in Brazil. Don't forget to dance! Show God you are free!
Trans boy in America. How are you?
So many thoughts and feelings. First is that I didn't know how much I needed to be called a miracle in that way.
Second is that I'm Native American, and watching this reminded me of a time my grandmother said something like "Jews get all the movies" but it was clear she was talking about how little representation we get, and how few people know everything we lost. We don't even know. There were so many times when I would ask a specific thing in a myth or custom, and my family or our friends would just shrug, and insert something from Hispanic Catholicism or from a different tribe who managed to retain that aspect of their culture.
Acknowledging now the antisemitism in what my Grandma said, I never noticed before how unfairly I envied Jewish representation because I never thought about the kind of erasure that takes place in plain sight, versus the erasure of negligence and suppression that we have.
But I've been sitting here realizing what a mishmash of cultures mine is, because there isn't enough of it left to be whole. And it makes me want to make a conscious effort of filling in those blanks in a more directed, solidarity-focused way.
It seems like the answer to the ongoing hurt of those gaps, at least.
Ugh, I wish I could express it more clearly than that. It's strange to have such similar cultural traumas that come from such different places. It's really painful and bonding.
I don't know how you do this shit to me every time. There's so much of an invitation to experience a full range of emotions honestly and with growth, and self-reflection. Which, obviously doesn't always feel good, but that also always feel worth it.
I don't know, I appreciate your work.
Also, because I've been dancing as a sort of defiance against hopelessness a lot lately, the latter portions of this hit me kind of hard.
You know I thought it was pretty powerful that Taika Waititi comes from such a mixed background because I think he puts all of that into his work. His mother is Jewish and his father was Maori. In his acceptance speech when he won best adapted screenplay at the Oscars he dedicated it to all the indigenous kids around the world who want to make art and tell stories because they are "the original storytellers." I thought that was beautiful. Stay strong and stay well, thank you for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
wow. i mean, i'm filipino, but highkey same cultural trauma 👋🏼 all the way down to piecing things together from sister/brother cultures that managed to retain similar aspects (aka why filipinos love polynesian culture). honestly, i don't have anything really to say bc u p much said it all, trying to understand and connect w a culture that was wiped out by the spanish, trying to overcome feelings of resentment towards hypervisible groups and learn solidarity, all of that. i guess i just wanted to say i see u ❤️ love and solidarity
I recommend 'Reel Injun' a documentary on native american representation on film and popular culture. Also, the novel 'There There' by Tommy Orange. It's really difficult to find good examples in media of american genocide in contrast to european, such as 'Bury my heart at wounded knee' or 'Hostiles'. Hollywood and the entire country still have a long way to to go on owning their roots. If it's hard just on slavery, imagine coming to terms with genocide. Nazis didn't win, but white settlers achieve what they set out to do, take your land (and they still are doing it when they find resources or need to set a pipeline). I don't mean to lecture, just wanted to share as you did. Peace!!!
Did you or did you not reach through the computer five times and punch me in the gut? Exceptionally well stated and crafted!
My husband and I saw Jojo Rabbit when it first came out. We were both sobbing when we left the theater. I didn't even try to hide that my face was covered in tears. It took us 20 minutes of sitting in the car crying silently before he and I could function again. I'm a crier, and seeing this film made me cry harder than I had throughout most of my life. I've watched this essay twice and CZcams wanted me to watch it again. I honestly can't right now, because I cried throughout 90 percent of the video both times. I don't know if I commented those other times, so I felt I needed to do that. Thank you for this beautiful video.
When Jojo just tied Elsa shoes,like his mother, I can't...... I just can't.....😭😭
@@somenamelastnaammee52 I know. One of many small moments that made me burst into tears.
Apparently, Thomasine McKenzie (actor who plays Elsa) learned all about the Holocaust in preparation for her role. She watched documentaries, read diaries, and visited the Anne Frank House. When she told Taika Waititi (the director) this, he told her to go watch Mean Girls because “no one is just a victim.”
I love that, of ALL movies he told her to watch to convey this message, he chose Mean Girls. That movie really is the gift that keeps on giving.
For me as a German I am always confused when people ask: "Is it ok to make fun of Nazi-Germany or Hitler?" Of course it is, as perfectly stated by Waititi. I've seen so many Neonazis getting angry about people making fun of their stupid beliefs and dumb theories...it's priceless. Thx for your effort making this video. I really hope the election in november is going well for you guys!
"As long as it pisses the Nazis off" is a pretty decent answer
I totally agree. However also as a german person, its an experience tha I have made that people rather make fun of the german people, rather than Nazis, by equalizing them, leaving the jews completely out of the picture, for americans: "We won ans you lost both world wars" as if it was a sports contest, with any understanding of the tragedy the holocaust is. They dont care about making fun about nazis.
@@1Kaisermerlin Those people are best left to either be ignored, I never want to say that anyone is a hopeless case but you can't change people at the snap of a finger, especially if they don't want to themselves. I mainly am on guard when somebody is that "patriotic" bc ignoring the fact that Nazis sent Germans who disagreed w/ the NSDAP to concentration camps first, those people tend to also be prone to Fascist ideologies, if they aren't secretly are already.
as someone who used to be one of those edgy teenagers who made holocaust jokes because it was a 'forbidden subject', i am so glad movies like jojo rabbit exist. i watched it, alone in my room at 3 am, because i liked taika waititi from his marvel films, expecting a comedy, and i cried. i cried so many times. this movie touched me so deeply, so so so deeply. never before had i regret a phase in my life so much, never before had i felt so much pain for someone else, for so many others who felt so much pain that i am lucky i will never have to experience. this video came up in my recommended and as soon as i saw the clip of rosie's shoes, i cried again, and spent the rest of the video sitting at my desk like that. i'm so grateful i've learned better now, so grateful i've left that part of me behind, and since then i've educated myself and learned much more about this. this video was powerful, and incredibly touching, and beautiful.
education on the holocaust needs to be re-evaluated and taught properly, or it will just continue to be a forbidden subject that people will joke about. this can't continue to be a thing that you have to research yourself to understand how damaging and serious it was. this is truly something that shouldn't be forgotten.
thank you for this video. definitely subscribing in the hopes of seeing more like this.
Not being allowed to joke about something makes it taboo and inherently forbidden. There can be smart jokes about horrible event and to me, levity is one of the greatest enemies of darkness.
I do agree about us needing to re-evaluate the holocaust. I took a genocide studies class last school year. It was a very eye-opening class to take and definitely changed my thinking a bit.
that’s one of the points of the movie- learning your bigotry is wrong then unlearning it
@@thepastaprogenitor851 *Levity; brevity is shortness.
@@rantymcrant-pants9536 autocorrect and it's consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
@@thepastaprogenitor851
Ahaha, agreed
as super depressed 17 year old black girl "survive out of spite if you must" made me tear up. thank you so much for making videos, seriously.
Oof. Cutting real close here as I’m a Native American man and with the feelings and lessons you express on this video. The feelings of a people once being dehumanized, something feared and hated. Treating as something less than human and the feelings of being the very human descendent of that. I won’t ever compare the history of native Americans and the history of Jewish people because
1. It’s not a competition
2. The differences of what happened are vast and cannot be compared in any sense beyond thinking “people like them died” and that reduces the importance of the stories survivors and those who come after tell.
But the intimately human feelings those histories create can be compared and if not compared, understood in my opinion. To feel what even a small part of what someone else from a different circumstance feels and to understand is something I try to do. And that's what I've done while watching this video thanks to the works to express those feelings such as this film and book, and your work creating videos to share your own experiences and ideas about these things.
Any person who is a descendent of any oppression carries the feelings of a history of pain. And know that at some time, some where, someone would’ve killed or brutalized us without recourse. That understanding intimately at a young age that your people were vulnerable and hurt (even despite wanting to find strength in them, i.e: Strong Warriors) deeply creates feelings that are complex and human. And those feelings are translatable though the work of stories and accounts people share.
So from someone from a different ethnicity and who connects with a different history, I feel what you have felt intimately on some level.
How it feels to carry a history full of pain from a young age and how it affects every thought you have whether it’s on purpose or not.
Though I won’t ever feel everything you have, nor do I expect to because how could I? Experiences are what make us individuals after all. Thanks for making this video.
this made me sob. your analysis, as always, is brilliant, heartfelt, cutting, and i can only thank you for this.
Hitler: You would sob like a big lil baby!!!
ME TOO IM CRYING RIGHT NOW
Me too. So perfect. She gets me every time with this one!
So many tears
My history teacher once said: "In Nazi Germany, everyone sitting in this room would probably be a Nazi with all their heart!" and proceeded to sit down.
To this day it fills me with endless fear.
I hope that the next generation of history teachers do their job well, for that we will never forget our giant guild.
I like this, but his statement kind of ignores the fact that some of your classmates could be Jewish? It seems a bit off
@@nobunnyspecial I was going to a christian school, while sadly there aren't that many people of jewish decent left in Germany. So at the time he very much knew that none of us were jewish or of jewish decent. (not only because of that, but also because of that)
But you are right, without context the quote lacks newounce, for example he was part of a movement that tryed to take their parents to account for what they did.
Sadly today bearly anyone knows of their Grand(Grand)parents past, its a shame.
I am the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Besides regular comments in the halls like "headed to the showers?", one specific memory that stuck hard was in sophomore English class where we were reading a book about the Holocaust, and we got to a harrowing part where a man had lost his wife from suicide due to the trauma of what she went through, and as the man was reciting the mourner's kaddish over his wife's body, other students were just giggling and making fun of the Hebrew they couldn't read. I was struggling so hard to even get through class to read this book, and other kids were just, laughing. How could anyone find this multigenerational trauma amusing?
Ah shit, I actually thought those boys bullying you in school were going to be shocked by the documentary and stop with their harassment but once again I overestimated some people's capacity for empathy. I can count all the times I've gotten angry in my life so far with just one hand, but this, laughing at something like this, literally makes my blood boil.
It crosses a line in my head. When I hear kids making racist jokes or bullying someone like they were bullying her, I default to assuming they're coming from a place of ignorance and don't understand the damage they're dealing.
There's no amount of ignorance that can explain laughing at footage of mass graves.
I am not Jewish, but I am Chiricahua Apache. My Indigenous Nation, of which there are less than a thousand of us living. I will never fully understand your experience compared to mine, but I know this pain. I see you. I hear you. Thank you so much for this video
Wow I cried for like the entire last half hour. I almost never cry in video essays, but something about how deeply personal each of your videos feel makes me emotional. I felt the same way about your Fleabag video especially. Thank you.
Same.
Same, on all counts.
As the descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors who was more than once kicked out of a class for refusing to allow it to not be called a genocide, I felt it like a gut punch when you said you didn’t remember when you learned about the Holocaust.
I remember so vividly being asked by other students and teachers why I cared so much and why I was disrupting lessons over what they felt was a matter of semantics. I was 11 so I don’t think I expressed it well, but it felt like the gap between my experience and theirs with this was an uncrossable chasm.
Amazed they taught about Armenians at all. My great grandfather and his sons were beheaded. Never heard anything in my schooling, except occasionally, a Hitler reference, when he was confronted that the world wouid come to the Jew's aid that no one came to the aid of the Armenians.
Thank you for mentioning the Gypsy/Roma genocide of the Second World War. As a Gypsy I am constantly amazed at the number of people who know nothing of this horror that happened right along side the 'Jewish/homosexual/Russian POW/and all the other peoples who pissed off the Nazis' genocides
Like, the whole point of shaving their hair. Giving them numbers and the same uniforms to wear was designed to dehumanise them. To remove their faces and names and individuality. Which makes it so painful to see the same treatment in media around the holocaust
I’m so sorry about that bully when you were a child, I was bullied for being from the Middle East in my childhood and it’s horrific seeing the hatred that children can inflict on each other. I really hope both our bullies learned better.
I really doubt it...Hatred just leaches deep inside people, especially if they’re taught it from a young age by otherwise benign influences like your parents...My Mom could never quite get why I got along so badly with her as I grew into adulthood and married into a Jewish family, until I pretty much screamed in her face, “Where the HELL do you think I learned the phrase JEW BASTARD from?! It wasn’t Dad!”...It somehow didn’t totally take me over, but I DO remember sometimes thinking, “Oh, That’s too bad” when I found out someone I liked was Jewish, and then wanting to just punch myself for reflexively giving into my Mom’s AntiSemitism (which had its origins in her OWN bullying experience growing up as a German Catholic post WWII in a Jewish neighborhood in Paris)
I was also bullied for being middle eastern. It was always confusing for me because I was constantly reminding these people that I’m puerto rican. At which point they would shift gears and attack me for being “illegal”. They genuinely don’t care if you are what they say you are. They only care that you’re not like them.
Here for the third time. Recently, "Maus" was banned, and there's been an increase in censorship in the US, especially when it comes to books on race, lgbt+ issues, and the Holocaust. Not far from where I live, there was a Nazi demonstration. It was only a few people, and thankfully they received a lot of public backlash, but nevertheless, the fact that these people thought it was acceptable now, in 2022, to stand in a highly populated area, shout slurs, and wave flags made me angry beyond words. Thank you for this video and your profound statements on remembrance.
It wasn't banned, you can still read it in those school libraries they just took it out of the curriculum because they thought it was too visceral for children that young. Alluding to the holocaust and learning from it is one thing but having very young children read a rape scene as well as other scenes like it isn't the most child friendly way too do it. Jojo rabbit is a pretty good example of a decently child friendly way to tackle those topics without things like that present.
@@jyro6095 You are correct that it wasn't banned, but I'd say by 8th grade, kids are old enough to understand what happened, and shouldn't be sheltered from it.
@@benl2140 Yeah they're definitely old enough I was reading pretty brutal stuff about the holocaust at that age , they moreso took issue with how visceral certain parts were than the content itself. Definitely agree though
“A woman looks a tiger in the eye” Elsa stares at the tiger painting when she lies to the nazis about being jojos sister
i dont think really put into words how much this essay hit me but needless to say i was crying through most of it. I too can't even recollect when I was first taught about the holocaust since I was so young. Its something i've always carried with me. I was forced to watch boy with the striped pajamas in high school and it's really only till watching this video that I can put to words why I was so displeased with that experience. I hope more movies are made like Jojo Rabbit
When I went to Yad Vashem on my Birthright trip, the Children's Memorial was the thing that nearly broke me. You can't really understand how overwhelming it is unless you've experienced it.
There are no words that adequately communicate the powerful tragedy and heartwrenching experience of the children's exhibit of Yad Vashem.
Iv'e been. There really is no way to put it into words, is there?
Captain K has a pink triangle on his uniform in his last scene with Jo Jo and when he is dragged to his execution you can see a garland of pink triangles hanging of his shoulder as an extension of his cape. My hypothesis is that Rosie and Captain K were dear friends in the past and Captain K joined Nazis to save himself and possibly his partner from being tortured and killed. And in the movie his heroism is not in his inability to be on the other side but in his commitment to protect his best friend’s child as a token of friendship and for being protected and not being given away by Rosie, although such a thing would be against her character. And that also explains why Rosie is so informal and deliberate with Captain K. Kicking him in his groin also shows that she doesn’t approve of him not being brave enough to join the resistance.
What makes me incredibly sad for Captain K and Finkel is the fact that even if they had laid down arms and surrendered at the first opportunity to the Allies, there is no guarantee they would have been any safer. The Soviets were as anti-homosexual as the Nazis, and the Americans were not much better at the time. They were truly in a no-win situation.
I remember when we watched the boy in the striped pajamas when they we’re getting gassed everyone in the class was starring at me
Oof I had many similar experiences in history classes where everyone knew I was Jewish and stared at me during the days when we covered the Holocaust
Ugh, I'm so sorry that happened to you, it sounds eerily uncomfortable, to say the least :(
So not only this every single time the Shoah ever came up, but when I was in 12th grade my English teacher was out for a week and left the sub with a copy of *Schindler's List* and instructions to show some of it every day. I told the sub I would be going to the school library every day, write me a pass or don't.
I actually rewatched Jojo because of this review. The first time I saw the movie, Captain K's introduction seemed like a man making excuses for his own shortcomings and trying to convince himself that he's fighting for a just cause. On revisit, it's more clear he's a man disillusioned by his government's incompetence and has resigned himself to making sly remarks while weakly delivering propaganda to new recruits.
You can actually see it that first time he greets the kids. That "Heil" he gives is pathetic and uncaring.
Jojo rabbit got unreasonably mixed reviews, the last moments in the film felt like the two characters letting go of so much hurt for a moment and as soon as the into to heroes started I got chills
About Captain K being gay: there actually was a prominent member of the Nazi-Party in the early years, as the leader of the SA, who was gay, Ernst Röhm, who was killed by the Nazis in 1934, on the allegations of a coup. so, gay party members, like Captain K were something real and totally plausible for this movie.
I comeback to this essay from time to time to sob and remember again and as a clueless kid not even having met a Jewish person in my life I think you achieved to instill a lesson to me very deeply
Gonna dogpile in with everyone saying this got them crying
I wasn't prepared for just how deep this would cut
I grew up in a place where I was very isolated from other Jewish people. I still remember being in second grade and learning that one of the new transfer students in my class was Jewish too and being so excited that there was someone else like me (although I was too shy and scared to ever talk to him-- something I still regret). In school, whenever we were taught about the holocaust, Jewish people were always referred to as a vague "them", or something that doesn't really exist anymore. I don't think my teachers ever had any bad intentions, but it felt weirdly dehumanizing. I always wanted to just stand up and say "we still exist" because I knew I couldn't be the only Jewish kid in school, but then I would remember asking my mom once as a kid if we could make a giant paper menorah and put it up on the front window to compete with the neighborhood christmas trees and her sitting me down and telling me "the world isn't kind enough for that yet."
Anyways, what I'm trying to say is: thank you for existing. It is so refreshing and incredible to be able to hear about this topic from someone actually Jewish for once. I feel like a little kid again, figuring out that I'm not alone for the first time. And thank you for making this video (and all of your other videos, frankly). I cried the whole way through.
As someone who is queer, autistic, and disabled, being told that just continuing to live as I am is a miracle and a form of resistance is really powerful and it's exactly what I needed today. Thank you. This video is so beautiful and really well done.
Also, the whole scene where Elsa says "Break free, great Aryan. There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't even grow a full moustache" is possibly my favorite scene in a movie ever. It's just so powerful and so badass and I love it so much.
I just watched "Jojo Rabbit" for the third time today, and noticed that at the end when Jojo confronts imaginary Hitler, all the swastikas in his room have been replaced with butterflies, which the film associates with Rosie. There's also a blue butterfly on his mirror, which draws parallels to the butterfly he saw before he found Rosie's body. I think this symbolizes that after she died, Jojo takes Rosie's place as a protector and dissident against the regime, which is also stressed when he ties Elsa's shoes before they go outside. Jojo is "mirroring" Rosie once she's gone, hence why the butterfly that appeared when he finds her body shows up on his mirror as well.
Tying shoes seems to be another metaphor for taking responsibility; at first, when Jojo is indoctrinated, he can't tie his own shoes, he tries to tie Rosie's shoes after she dies, but can't due to his grief, and then by tying Elsa's shoes, he takes responsibility for hurting and lying to her. And again, they mirror Rosie's "Is it dangerous?/Extremely" line, signifying that Jojo is now playing Rosie's role.
Just watched JoJo Rabbit. Damn, that movie suckerpunched me so many times by going from whimsical silliness to utter darkness. I think the rabbit scene encompassed the nazis perfectly. You can join us and have fun and feel superior and play with knives and be a part of the club and all we ask from you is that you give up your humanity and your soul.
I felt like Captain K was Jojo if Jojo had become what he wanted to be in the beginning, and realized what Jojo did but way way to late, when he was to deep into it. And so he 'does what he can'.
the only thing I'm 'patriotic' about is how germany handles our history. I can exactly tell you when I first learned of people being murdered in gas chaimbers. it was in seconds grade, I was 7. All through school we visited concentration camps, we saw the paintings of children who were murdered, we heard women talking about rape, about their babies being killed infront of their eyes. We analised nazi/ fascist media and how they tried to 'lure' people in, the state of the country that enabled them, etc. I read numerous autobiographies of jewish germans and their struggles through nazi school and in the ghettos. I don't know how many tears I've cried in compassion and also from shame knowing some ancestors probably partook or at least profited from this. It made me realise while I'm not at fault I have a responsibility to never enable this behaviour again and to respect survivors and their families and help ease their trauma in any way that I can. I think this is healthy, I think white children should be exposed to the reality of slavery and the genocide of indegenous people. And after tiping all this I realise that it has nothing to do with your analysis I'm sorry!
It's very interesting to know that Germany hasn't taken the route of "we did nothing wrong, here's why we were justified in killing those people" like many countries have done in the past knowing they were wrong. Germany seems to have taken what happened and decided to acknowledge it, to learn from it and to make sure the coming generations remember what happened whether they had a relation to someone living back then or not, and that history shall not repeat itself.
I have always said this and I will always believe this: it is not the people of a country who want to do the killing or to oppress others, it is the feeling of having no choice or else yourself or your family will be separated/ killed/ tortured in some way. Fear, for those who understand what is happening, and belief they are doing a good thing, for those who believe the lies of the propaganda given by the government as if it were the truth (because they haven't seen the truth yet). Fear and belief in propaganda is what controls a nation. It is not the people's fault in these cases, it's the government's, who seeks to control.
Any hatred people may still have towards the Germans these days is unwarranted - as I said, it was never the people, it was the control of the higher-ups.
I cried throughout the whole second half of the video. Videos about WWII always make me cry.
i was going to post the same comment, beautiful video..
I can't even begin to express how much I love Elsa
Sometimes I need to stop and realize how right, how logical, how transcendentally true it is to just be kind, and how absurd it is to hate in the way people do when they channel their own insecurities and nastiness through the act of othering. I don't share in the jewish culture but my grandfather was sent away from Germany by his mother who sold everything to buy him a ticket to South America because his father was jewish; later, he married the daughter of a German town policeman who hid an allied soldier in his basement during the better part of the war. We are made of kindness. It's how we survive.
I’m an indigenous person from the americas and I’ve felt there was always a level of understanding between us and the Jewish community or at least a sense of camaraderie . Talking about how Jewish people are portrayed in film and TV and that quote about it being a kind of forgetting really hit home for me. I’m constantly talking about and analyzing indigenous portrayal in popular culture and just really identified with that take on it. Love your videos and the way you put them together.
As a German, I cannot believe there are people in my country that dare say we learn "too much" about WW2 and the Holocaust, that "it's been so long" and "we shouldn't feel guilty nowadays". It honestly makes me sick, because, just as stated in this beautiful video: It's about not letting people forget. We teach our children again and again about what happened, we make documententaries and movies about it, we remember anniversaries and stay very careful about what we say and how we say it about this very sensitive topic - so that it hopefully never, ever has to happen again.
Americans say the exact same things about slavery. It’s sad that some people are so selfish that they’re only focused on how they feel guilty and uncomfortable when they learn about these things, and not the fact that millions of people were tortured to death just because of who they were.
As a Black woman, this resonated with me so much. Thank you for the brilliant work.
As a young German girl I always found it weird how Hollywood sometimes likes to portray the holocaust. I'm glad you shared your view on this as a Jewish American.
Also I can't believe how you make me cry with every.single.one of your videos
Thank you so much for acknowledging that the Romanis were also heavily targeted by Nazis. Of all of the years we had world war 2 studies in school Romanis were never mentioned and so many people are unaware we even existed. When people asked me what I am, if I told them I was Gypsy (that is the term my family uses for themselves) I would be called a liar, told that they didn't exist. Every time I had to explain the history, "ha ha yeah its hilarious that we are actually from India, not egypt. Yes its so confusing that my family came from Hungary." I became more and more tired of having to justify my existence and educate those who wouldn't remember or care to do research for themselves, to the point I stopped claiming being a Gypsy. It was simpler to say I was German on my dads side, and no one questioned me.
This video is probably a weird choice to watch on the first day of the new year. And I sit here sobbing on the first day of 5782 for my people who died and for those who survived.
Last night during the Rosh Hashanah my rabbi told the story of a sanitation worker working for a refuse disposal site. The bosses didn't like calling it what it was, they couched it in softening language and the worker would say "it's a dump!" She said we should sit with that, call it like it is, this pandemic, the state of the world . . . IT'S A DUMP! We shouldn't soften it, but we can imagine the world where it isn't a dump, where we do something better and we can work towards it. But that was still should recognize what it is now. (she told it better obv).
I think just like Jojo Rabbi gives us, we can laugh at those who caused us pain, who killed us for being who we are, who still threaten us for being who we are, while we also do not pull punches on the horror that HaShoah was. Because we have to call it the dump that it is, but we also have to dance.
I'm an immigrant to the netherlands and due to my inability to speak dutch yet, i've yet to connect to the jewish population here. There's organizations here that dig through information to find out what properties were taken from jews, we know who lived in various houses in Amsterdam, we know what they did for a living. And because of this I know one of my favourite stories that does both.
There was a couple in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam who lived on the Nieuwe Herengracht, a canal and the street along it. The husband was allowed to remain the custodian of the synagogue (why? i'm not sure but I am glad of it). The wife managed to get a forged document that was essentially a certificate of being 100% Aryan, cause that was a thing apparently, despite (if I remember correctly) her surname being Sephardi, the word itself. They of course were hiding a small group of jews in their home because why wouldn't they?
So on Yom Kippur, the congregation wanted to keep doing services, they wanted to blow the shofar, so they quietly did hold the service in the house. But the SS came to the door that night searching. The woman opens the door, they tell her they're looking for a place on Nieuwe Heregracht at her house number. She manages to convince them that actually they were looking for the same house number not on Nieuwe Herengracht, but on Herengracht, about a 30 minute walk through the city. And they leave. And the service continued. And they survived.
When my wife and I pieced that story together between the news article about the service and looking up *who* these people were (the article didn't go into her having a jewish maiden name or her husband being the custodian), I laughed to the point of tears, jumping around and stimming because I couldn't handle how fucking absurd it was. And now that I've seen Jojo Rabbit, it feels like it could have been take right out of the film. It's uncomfortable, it's scary, and when tension is resolved, it's done so with just "Oh you got the wrong street". So many movies paint the SS as cunning and she got them to not look *in the jewish quarter* with "you got the wrong street"? To me that's hilarious.
Anyway, Shana tovah, thanks for making so many great videos
One sad detail is when captain k was dragged to his death you can see he has Finkel's cape with him...meaning he might have watched him die.
Thank you for this wonderful and heartbreaking essay. Really, a lot people need to watch this. Some seems to forget the how vile nazi's crime against humanity is and how they themselves with their dogmatic believes teared Germany apart.
I'm jewish, and loved this essay so much. I agreed with pretty much every single thing you said.
As a person still struggling with depression, the final quote in jojo - "no feeling is final" has brought me to tears.
Thank you for this video. Stay safe.
I'm German. One half of my ancestors were killed by nazis and I only survived cause my great-great grandma married a Christian in a rush and was forgotten to be transported to a KZ my other family died. My other ancestors on the other sides were proud to fight in the war. (At this time, don't worry all of my family in 2021 are anti-nazi)
This topic is hard for me but I really loved your video.
This video is a masterpiece. I want to hang it on my wall.
Dammit. Can you make one video I get through without tears? As a non-jewish half-German half-Austrian this one hit hard in a bad way. Don't even have any righteous gentiles amongst my ancestors, they ranged from apathetic to fervent supporters, to (probably) murderers. So, I do my best to listen and to speak up in the face of rising fascism, and to teach my children to do what we can. And I continually worry that it is not enough. Not enough against Nazis, not enough against the climate catastrophe, not enough against the fundamental economic inequalities behind both... Your videos are amongst those things that encourage me to keep trying, to not give up, to do what I can, and to dance. Thank you!
I agree about individuals being easier to empathize with. Six million is true and terrible but also difficult to get one’s head around. Which is why works that allow audiences connect with an individual level are so important. Elsa is a great example of this working really well. I always knew that Nazis were bad and the holocaust was terrible on an abstract level, but seeing this portrayal of a wonderful, innocent kid, under mortal threat for no other reason than who she is, moved me more than almost any other piece of art I have seen.
“And then the other shoe drops.”
Me: “Oh, fuck you for that!” *sobs*
This is one of my favorite movies, and that part makes me bawl every single time. I’ve watched this video multiple times over the past several months, and it moves me every time. Thank you so much, and keep doing what you do. Every heart and mind that is reached is worth it, and to be celebrated. 💙💙
I was born in Germany in the early 80s, and lived there several times in my childhood. I wasn't Jewish, but the knowledge of the Holocaust was baked into my brain from sheer osmosis. I can't remember being actively taught it. Germany is so scarred by it as a whole, the shame is so intense that even the child of British Military personnel absorbed it just by being a child there. Then later, moved back to the UK for good, British history classes are stuffed full of what a shit time it was in the UK while being bombed to kingdom come and rationing and evacuation of children from major cities.
It is wild to me that there are people out in these streets pretending like it didn't happen. Or that it can't happen again. Or that it *isn't* happening again.
I don't often comment on videos, other than for snarky comments, but I wept openly towards the end of this. Thanks. As a Jew, having loved The Book Thief when I read it as a kid, and JoJo Rabbit when I watched it as a grown ass man, I needed this. Thanks.
So excited to see a video from the only essayist to make me cry multiple times haha. Your content is always amazing.
Such a mood, she always makes me cry
Agreed.
I’m literally crying right now as I read this as well
i don't think I've found a video that expresses lots of my thoughts and feelings. Being Jewish, Queer and trans, and being told that being alive, is a miracle, i don't think I've cried more about a video essay. thank you if you ever see this (highly doubt but still)
I am not Jewish but this video made me tear up.
"So remember to dance, and sing, to celebrate being free and alive."
Awesome job! Hope your channel grows, you deserve it.
Perhaps this is off-topic, but whenever the topic of Jewish experiences from the WWII era comes up I inevitably think of the lack of knowledge and material surrounding the drafting of Jewish Germans (and Austrians) into the German army. The absurdity and pain that came from being forced to fight for a regime that hated you was an awful reality that a significant number of people had to face. Because I think it’s a great book and I’m always trying to get more people to read it, I’m going to recommend “An Unlikely Warrior: The Jewish Soldier in Hitler’s Army.” It’s a memoir written by Georg Rauch and it’s both an amazing novel and an important perspective on this time period from a Jewish man.
I remember in college writing an essay about this topic. Naturally, it's now long enough ago that I don't remember the details of what I wrote or what sources I researched, but...yeah, it really is an under-researched topic, from my understanding.
It's not every day a video essay makes me laugh, cry, and think deeply. Thank you for this.
Jojo has a special place in my heart. My grandfather was 12 when the war ended, he was part of the hitler youth, indoctrinated and brainwashed by the nazis. He told me that when the war ended he was sad "we had lost" but how he slowly realised the incredible evil that the nazis were. He saw war, he saw jewish people being transported away in trains. He told me when he was over 80 years old how they were indoctrinated, how he could still without a moment of hesitatiom recall the birth date/place etc. of hitler as they had done every morning in school and you could see how much he hated that. He was also the best man I have ever known, he was incredibly kind and always put others before himself. He had the opportunity to form many international friendships and celebrated being able to be friends with people that were once regarded as enemies. To think that this wonderful man had been indoctrinated in his childhood by the most evil doctrine humanity has ever seen just will not go into my head.
Im so glad that he managed to shake off the anti-semetic messages and loyalty of hitler ingrained in him and be a good person.
I related in a very watered down way when you said you felt like you were born knowing about the Holocaust. It's not the same, but I feel like I was born knowing about the Great Hunger in Ireland. It was much longer ago, and didn't kill nearly as many, but it's affecting my life today. It's impacted millions and millions of lives. And I never remember when I learned about it. I remember my teacher talking about it in school, and I already knew more than what she was saying. It's a strange feeling, especially because no one except other people of Irish heritage really know much about it. Those I've talked to about it all said the same thing.
If it's any consolation, Irish famine is taught in Ukraine in world history lessons because, well, we also had famine. What you've described right now resonated deeply.
I know why I cried during the movie jojo rabbit, but why am I getting tears eyed during this? I love this, and I love watching people appreciate this movie.
I am a man. I find it very hard to cry, not because I am ashamed nor because the feelings aren't great enough to make me cry. I just don't. But... listening to you talking about movie I've never seen and book I've never read... it happened twice in span of one hour of your eassy. Thank you, you beautiful human being. I am haunted by you.
I enjoyed this well researched and presented analysis. I don't wanna give you a bullshit "I see you" comment but for real. I take in this information and I compare it with my own as an American Black woman. I see the myriad of the human experience and how unfortunately pain is often the common bond amongst groups that have terrorized. Thank you for putting this beautiful piece together. I did a little dance after this.
As someone who is native, I get the experience of being touched by genocide, and racism. It’s as if to be born broken with the cracks, that makes people uncomfortable forevermore.
Wanting to live the idea that deaths via the hands of their ancestors, are far to long ago to happen again. As id they are better, while wanting to forget the steps and privileges that allows for such atrocities to exist.
To them? You’re existence will always be living proof of the horrors, that unchecked white power leaves on those beyond dates and written words.
I don't remember Taika Waititi's exact quote in an interview for Jojo Rabbit, but he said something to the effect of jokes being a great way to drive home the real emotion behind scenes.
It helped make so much snese as to why Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit occupy similar places in my heart, and why they both have something to say about colonialism and anti-Semitism, respectively.
So thank you for putting together a piece of art that helped open my mind even more to the wonder of storytelling in service of fighting our oppressive preconceptions. To stop thinking of myself as a Righteous Gentile, and instead do the work of becoming one.
I... think I've watched this analysis three times now. It never fails to make me cry.
I'm Dutch and grew up near Vught. We were made painfully aware from a young age of the horrors of the Holocaust, through history lessons and school excursions to Camp Vught. I wish this analysis existed back when I was in middle school. It's so incredibly poignant, well made and just... touching.
I've written and rewritten this comment a few times now, and I can't quite put into words my thoughts on this. I'm just incredibly grateful this exists, and I wish more people see this. I wish more people really watch this and learn from it.
Keep on fighting the good fight, OP. I wish you all the best.
I keep coming back to this video, having watched it multiple times over the past two years. Now, with the current rise of bigotry in the United States and laws being passed that encourage it, I'm terrified. Your "survive out of spite" message has become more and more important to me every day. Thank you.
I also like Kate Bornsteins do what ever takes to make your life worth living. And they really mean whatever, "just don't be mean".
Personally I since I started to live as myself I don't have a problem with that part of living anymore, my problem is figuring out how you actually do it 😂 Live that is.
I remember when my friend read the Book Thief and started crying, I dismissed her saying it’s just a book, or that of course it’s sad what did you expect, looking back I was very rude and was short sighted,
I once read a quote about censorship that went, "There will always be censorship, because the two most common things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." At the time, I thought that was very acerbic and clever. Experience has led me to a point where I hope that it's not true. But I fear the same quote could be made about the vastly more serious and tragic issue of hatred, in all its forms. When you talked about all the books with the names of the dead in them, it made me think of one thing: the Library of Babel. If such a thing existed - and if it pertained to humanity in any way - I think it would contain not random sequences of letters that occasionally made sense by accident, but the names of all those who have died at the hands of others in all those names of hatred & fear: holocaust, crusade, pogrom, witch-hunt, jihad, purge, final solution, racial purity, & more. And every human who ever lived would go there when they died, and spend 10,000 years just reading those names, until humanity learns to overcome inconsequential differences, ignorance, fear, and hatred. Humanity has been given a great gift: we can, if we choose, overcome our own fears. We can consciously override our instincts. But very few actually do. Most people live in the moment much of the time. We're too busy living. After all, reflection is for those who reach a ripe old age, isn't it? But those moments we live in can sweep us away. Large portions of humanity can be caught up in tides of emotion either great or terrible, and can be led to do things they wouldn't as individuals. And there are even some individuals who will try to cause such tides, hoping to carry as many as possible along with them in horrible purpose. We must learn to pause and think; to reason. Ignorance can be easily treated, but we seldom do so. It costs more than moments. It costs lives. tavi.
I remember when the first trailer for Jojo Rabbit and people were FREAKING OUT about how a movie could satirize the holocaust, well Taika certainly showed them
edit: also why do you make me cry in every video essay
The had the same criticisms for Mel Brooks' The Producers.
Thank you for the Romani shout out . It meant a lot to me.
This video essay has done some important things for me. As a german I am acutely aware of the horrors that happened. Maybe more so than the average person here, as I get uncomfortable around these topics (especially jokes about it!) much faster than my friends. I can't stand jokes about the holocaust, and until a short while ago I couldn't even hear jokes of a jewish comedian here making fun of the nazis without having that gut-wrenching feeling of ''Oh no, if we're joking about it, do we still take it seriously?''. As if I could ever get what a jewish comedian does there with all his nuance and keen understanding... this essay changed that. This movie changed that. ''Never forget'' might also mean ''Never let it have power, don't let nazis have any respect''. You must joke about them, make their ridiculousness obvious, show the world how deeply wrong and stupid their ideology is. As a child I visited Buchenwald, it was a trip with my class. There were many that were bored, some even joked, I just... said nothing. All day I was silent, overwhelmed by places of mass-death and objects that blatantly stated suffering, despair and so, so much pain. It was there. No history book, not pictures, not a single word my teacher said could have taught me what I learned that day. I stood in a building where jews, homosexuals, romani people and many more suffered, cried and died. Many people my age here say something along the lines of ''It's bad what happened, no doubt - but why am I to feel guilty for what my ancestors did?''. But that is not the point. I am not guilty for what some of my ancestors did, or let happen, or simply ignored. But as a person born in this place, raised with the knowledge of what happened and equipped with the means to learn about how all of it effected jewish people, I -or, more acurately, the people living in my country today- am to blame if we ever let it happen again. Because we know. And if we don't, we have the means to find out. I think germanys resposibility is to educate and take a stand whenever in history someone somewhere points the finger at jews (or black people, or muslims, or lgbtq+, or whoever) and says ''THEY are the problem!'' with the goal to eradicate or harm. I think currently we're failing at this. We let it happen in China, and there are no consequences, and we let it happen in many more places. Sometimes I feel despair at this, because I lack the means to do something about it on a grand scale. But I want to do what I can; listen to jewish speakers and creators, vote for parties that don't discriminate people, try to educate people that say harmful things out of ignorance - but it isn't enough, I have no illusions about that. There is a new right-wing party in germany, the AFD. And their ideology is exactly what led to the death of millions of innocents, dressed in civility. And there are people here who vote for them. Enough to make people worry. I think that is part of why there are so many films made that portray german people as saviours without ever displaying the humanity of the jewish people in them; we don't want it to happen again, and we want to show that we want to save those who are threatened. At the same time, we know so little of these people. I don't know much about the jewish religion, their traditions, their worries and the weight they carry. Apart from the insight given here and in some other places, jews to me are just people, at the same time they are shown as vulnerable and in need of public support and as somethinmg that needs protection. I think all of this leads to what filmmakers get wrong, and this weird divide needs to be closed differently than showing that ''some german people want to help and helped back then''. That just won't do. But I won't pretend to know how to do it better. We need more places like this channel. Giving insight and and a feel for what is actually going on, what is the problem and what would be appropriate to do. I still don't have all the answers, but this video gave me.. something. And I'll keep this precious little something with me. Thank you for that.
This video had me in tears by the end, tears I struggled to keep contained throughout the majority. I'm not Jewish so I cannot possibly imagine the consistent pain and nor do I know it on any similar scale, but as a transgender person I can understand in some regard what it means to feel persecuted and to know there are people out there who want me dead for living genuinely. I already despised facism and ached for the suffering of so many groups, but this video unlocked a whole new layer of empathy and anger that I didn't know I could reach. Thank you so much for creating a video like this, it is simply a masterpiece.
"Black lives matter and if that bothers you, I encourage you to exit this channel perused by a bear"
How is this channel so profoundly amazing?
@Dana Davison I see your point but its always important to consider the merits of and idea or movement separate from the people that become the representatives of its. My though process is: does the movement aim to increase average happiness? if yes it is probably a good idea. if no, avoid it. the concept of the African American gangsta is very good at introducing biases in white people, and often leads to dehumanization through perceived lack of shared culture. If executed effectively, black lives matter would aim to abolish this stereotype and thus encourage positive treatment of people who have historically been very mistreated.
tl;dr the concept of black lives matter is great, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
I watch this one every time I need a good cry. "I wanted to tell the book thief so many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know?" Gets me every time.
Those boys sounded f***ing disgusting! Hope they got the karma they deserved for freaking laughing at that documentary, how heartless can you be to LAUGH AT THAT?!
i’m terrible at handling the deaths of fictional characters; my mind feels so much grief, even in their nonexistence. but the end gives me so much hope. as a descendent of the anusim and of indigenous peoples who have suffered great cultural and ethnic genocide, the fact that somehow, in the aftermath all of this terror, i was born. and the fact that i hold magen david in my hand is the biggest fuck you i can imagine. they failed.
LordMacKarl star of david ^-^
I cant say it enough times, READ THE BOOK THIEF. It is such an amazing emotional experience and by the end it will have hit you so many times that even hearing a few lines from it in this video made me tear up. It is the best book I’ve ever read and i will honestly never forget it
I have re-watched this video multiple times, but have never had the reaction I'm having now. With recent events regarding abortion and the many anti-LQBTQ+ bills being put in place, I can't help but reinstate with the ending of this video. No matter how much conservatives try, they won't be able to totally remove minorities from this world, and that has never felt more comforting than it has now for me.
I think there's a duality of both being somewhat desensitized to some of the sheer horror involved and simultaneously way more affected by it than your peers. The "I don't know when I learned about the Holocaust. I guess I always knew" line really hit me.