World War II · Film · 1990
Europa Europa
Hitlerjunge Salomon
A Jewish teenager from Germany survives the war by passing first as a Soviet Komsomol member and then as an ethnic German interpreter and Hitler Youth cadet, always one glance away from exposure.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 6 places.
Stop 1: Peine, Lower Saxony
On the eve of his bar mitzvah, Solek hides in a barrel during the Kristallnacht attack on his family's home.
Stop 2: Łódź
When Germany invades Poland, his parents send Solek and his brother east to escape.
Stop 3: Grodno
After two years in a Soviet orphanage, Solek is caught by the advancing Germans and saves himself by claiming to be a Volksdeutscher.
Stop 4: Hitler Youth school, Braunschweig
Key location
Adopted by his unit as a mascot, 'Jupp' is sent to an elite Nazi school, where race lessons and a girlfriend put him in constant danger.
Stop 5: Łódź Ghetto (Litzmannstadt)
On leave, he rides a tram through the sealed ghetto looking for his parents in the windows.
Stop 6: Berlin
Drafted to defend the capital, he surrenders to the Soviets and must convince them who he really is.
What really happened
The film follows the memoir of Solomon Perel, born in Peine in 1925. His family fled to Łódź, where his parents were later confined in the ghetto and murdered. Separated from his brother in 1939, he spent two years in a Soviet orphanage in Grodno before German troops captured him in 1941 and he claimed to be an ethnic German.
He served as an interpreter with a Wehrmacht unit and was sent to a Hitler Youth school in Braunschweig, hiding his circumcision for four years. At the end of the war he was captured by the Red Army near Berlin. Holland compresses some episodes, but the extraordinary outline of Perel's survival is his own account.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Hitlerjunge Salomon
- Directed by
- Agnieszka Holland
- Countries
- Germany, France, Poland
- Languages
- German, Russian, Polish
- Released
- 1990
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Eastern Front
- Themes
- Holocaust
- Biography
- True story
