Germans & Jews

Filmmaker Janina Quint's thoughtful documentary examines Germany's obligation to reflect upon and remember its responsibility for the Holocaust. But the film's approach—interviewing some 30 people, including historians, journalists, and a representative of the American Jewish Committee—and findings reveal that the subject is not so much straightforward as it is a Rubik's Cube of multiple contradictions. The documentary is anchored by a dinner party in which Jewish Germans and Jewish Americans converse with non-Jewish Germans, discussing everything from anxiety over anti-Semitism to the question of how contemporary Germans should feel about their grandfathers who fought in World War II. From there, the topics expand to include a look at the balance between the need to teach and remind young Germans about the nation's Nazi past and an impulse to move on as a society from guilt; Germany's 1952 reparation payment to Israel (called “blood money” by some); the 1961 trial of “Final Solution” architect Adolf Eichmann; the student rebellion of 1968, in which young people demanded that the older generation's silence about Hitler be broken; and the impact of the German TV broadcast of the 1978 American miniseries Holocaust. Exploring morally complex issues that present no easy answers, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)