Es war einmal in Deutschland...

Bye Bye Germany

Frankfurt, 1946. Jewish merchant David is trying to set up a business with friends who, like himself, narrowly escaped death. He wants to resume the traditional linen trade of his family who were all murdered in the Holocaust. He and his other self-appointed salesmen are making their way from door to door, using the most absurd of ploys to gain entrance and offer German housewives their finest bed linen. Their experiences provide a picture of the immediate post-war period from a Jewish perspective.

Sam Gabarski adopts the same dryly humorous tone that is to be found in Michel Bergmann's 'Teilacher' trilogy on which this film is based. Major questions are dealt with in an ostensibly casual manner: should the survivors remain in the country of their persecutors that was once their home? Or should they use the cash they have made to emigrate as quickly as possible? David – who, thanks to his talent for comedy, survived the Holocaust by entertaining the Nazis with revues – is faced with an entirely different set of questions as special agent Sarah Simon investigates his past. She wants to know why he has two passports, and what he was doing visiting Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg.

Source: 67. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)