Jealous of the Birds

After WWII, some 15,000 Holocaust survivors resettled in Germany despite the tension and paranoia of living amidst their persecutors. How could they stay? JEALOUS OF THE BIRDS was born from this pivotal question. And while the film finds no simple answers, it unearths a unique community living under particular circumstances. There is no illusion here: Only in Germany do the victims of concentration camps publicly encounter those implicated in their near extinction. And in so doing… They shape each other. Filmmaker Jordan Bahat leads this quest with a desire to understand the choices made by his own grandparents. In interviews with survivors, their children and other Germans, Bahat explores what it means for victims to live among perpetrators and for children of those perpetrators to deal with the guilt borne from the crimes of their parents. The film becomes a conversation about the effects of these relationships on future generations and the human capacity to confront and rebuild. Jealous of the Birds reminds us that the choices of the past create a legacy that plays out across families, nations, cultures and generations.