What began as a private conversation between two friends, Tal Recanati (an American Jew) and Janina Quint (a non-Jewish German), grew into a cultural exchange among many. The film explores the complicated relationship between Germans and Jews in postwar Germany and the country's transformation as a society. It is at once uncomfortable and provocative, unexpected and enlightening. From denial to acceptance, a story of reconciliation emerges.
Today, Europe's fastest growing Jewish population is in Berlin and Germany. Considered one of the most democratic societies in the world, Germany is assuming the position of moral leader of Europe as they embrace hundreds of thousands of refugees. Such a development could not have been imagined in 1945.
GERMANS & JEWS opens with second-generation Jews and non-Jewish Germans together at a dinner table in present-day Germany. They have gathered to discuss their highly sensitive relationship. The narrative then explores the post-war years—from victims to perpetrators to defenders of human rights and democracy. Germans have made a valiant effort to face the past and to learn from it. What other country builds so many memorials commemorating its own atrocities?
We hear from Jews living in Germany, some who arrived after the war others who were born and raised in post-war Germany and still others who immigrated from Russia and Israel. Today, it is estimated that there are close to 250,000 Jews living in Germany. They have become the seismograph of the society. Historians, theologians, journalists, academics, businessmen, artists, and musicians—all weigh in to grapple with the idea of German guilt, Holocaust fatigue, and anti-Semitism. It is an untold story, of Germans and Jews, inextricably linked through their memory of the Holocaust.