Solomon Perel
Encyclopedia
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and motivational speaker
Motivational speaker
A motivational speaker or inspirational speaker is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. In a business context, they are employed to communicate company strategy with clarity and help employees to see the future in a positive light and inspire workers to pull...
. He was born 21 April, 1925 in Peine
Peine
Peine is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, capital of the district Peine. It is situated on the river Fuhse and the Mittellandkanal, approx. 25 km west of Braunschweig, and 40 km east of Hanover.- History :...
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to a German Jewish family. He escaped persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an ethnic German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
. His life story is told in the 1990 film Europa Europa
Europa Europa
Europa Europa is a 1990 German language film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. "Hitler Youth Salomon". It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped The Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but...
based on his autobiography Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon (I Was Hitler Youth Salomon).
Early life and invasion
The Perels were harshly persecuted when the Nazis came to power, and Solomon's father eventually moved the family to Łódź, PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1935 after their shoe shop was vandalised by German Nazi sympathisers.
When the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, Solomon and his brother Isaak attempted to escape to the Soviet-occupied part of Poland. Solomon joined a Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
-run orphanage in Grodno whilst his brother travelled elsewhere.
Masquerade
Solomon fled from the orphanage when Germany invaded the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and was captured by a German army unit. Since he was a native German and spoke the language perfectly, Solomon was able to convince his captors that he was a Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
r (an ethnic German living outside Germany) and was subsequently accepted into his captors' unit as a Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
-German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
interpreter. He played a key role in the capture of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's son
Yakov Dzhugashvili
Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili was one of Joseph Stalin's four children . Yakov was the son of Stalin's first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze...
, a Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
officer, and thereafter became endeared to his German army unit. As a circumcised Jew, Perel was constantly in danger of being discovered by his German unit, and attempted on several occasions to flee back to the Soviets, each time without success.
Since he was still a minor, Solomon was sent to a Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
school in Braunschweig
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
, where he continued to hide his Jewish identity under the name of Josef Perjell. At that time he had a girlfriend by the name of Leni. She was a fervent Nazi so although Solomon loved Leni he dared not tell her that he was Jewish for fear of her informing the authorities. Later, Leni's mother discovered Solomon was Jewish but did not reveal his secret.
Close to the end of the war Solomon was captured by a US-Army unit, but released the next day. After traveling back to his home town, and making dozens of written inquiries, he finally located his brother Isaak. Solomon learned that his father had died of starvation in the Łódź ghetto, his mother was killed in a gassing truck and his sister was shot while on a death march.
After the war
In 1948 Perel resettled in the newly independent IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
where he joined the army to fight in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
. He later left the Israeli army to become a businessman. Solomon did not return to Germany until 1985 at the invitation of the Mayor of Peine in a commemoration of the destruction of the Peine synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
.
Autobiography and film
He later wrote a book about his exploits entitled Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon (I Was Hitler Youth Salomon). The book was later adapted into the 1990 film Europa EuropaEuropa Europa
Europa Europa is a 1990 German language film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. "Hitler Youth Salomon". It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped The Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but...
. Solomon often tours and gives talks throughout Europe about his wartime experiences.