Jealous of the Birds (Jordan Baker, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Linda Lopez.  SBIFF. Viewed at the  Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

“Jealous of the Birds” is a documentary about the holocaust victims who were retained in Germany after the end of World War II.  When the Allied Forces liberated the Jews from concentration camps, many were brought to displaced-persons camps inside Germany under U.S. military jurisdiction.  Many survivors were not from Germany but came from Poland, Romania, and other European countries.  Today, there are approximately 69,000 Jews (originating from those displaced holocaust survivors) living in Germany, which includes their children and grandchildren–the latter were born and raised in Germany and are German citizens.  (Note:  These figures do not include the 150,000 Russian Jews who immigrated to Germany after 1989.)

Ellie Wiesel narrates this powerful film.  In the opening scene, the camera focusses-in on an elderly gentleman getting ready to sit down with his chess board at a park in Frankfurt.  A stranger approaches the man and asks if he can join him in a chess game.  In essence, they are just two strangers who meet by chance in a park.  Or is it fate that one is a Jewish holocaust survivor and the other a former SS German officer?  Neither are aware of this, but there is a tension between the two men as they both scrutinize each other wondering about the other as they move their chess pieces.

Jordan Baker, the director of this film, is the grandson of one of the survivors who still lives in Frankfurt.  Baker was born in the U.S., but since his birth he has travelled to Germany with his mother every year to visit his grandparents.  Baker made this film because he always wanted to know why his grandparents stayed in Germany and never immigrated elsewhere.  During the course of several interviews with his grandmother and other survivors, Baker discovers why.

Baker also interviewed a German woman, whose father was a SS officer during the war.  This particular interview was useful in the documentary to provide contrasts and similarities between the different generations.  One reoccuring similarity is that the older generation on both sides do not talk about what happened to them during the war.  As a result, they have built walls around themselves, thereby building walls between themselves and their children.

When Baker interviewed his grandmother, she made it very clear that she was not telling a story but telling her life.  Later, Baker and his grandmother visit Auschwitz and she shares a glimpse of her life at the concentration camp when she was only a young girl.  Baker’s grandfather was also a holocaust survivor but died before Baker could interview him.  However, his grandfather left a tape recorded message for Baker.  In it, he said that when he was in the concentration camp, he would “get jealous of the birds because they could fly away.”

Throughout this documentary, tensions between the Jews and Germans is central to its theme.  Although time has not wiped away the tensions, one Jew interviewed  believes that the tensions are good because it keeps everyone alert.  But because of these tensions Baker’s mother immigrated to the U.S. before he was born. She left because she was caught between two worlds.  On one hand she was a Jew and on the other a German citizen.  She was tired of her German friends asking, “How can you stay here after what the Nazis did to your people?”  Then Jews ask her, “How can you be a German after what they did?”  Ultimately, becoming a U.S. citizen was probably among the best things she’s ever done.