"Europa Europa" (Hitlerjunge Solomon)
The real story of Solomon Perel by Agnieszka Holland (1991)
for Students in my First Year Seminar: From Holocaust to German Unification
at McDaniel College, compiled by Dr. Mohamed Esa
For Solomon Perel it is still "every time like the first time." He saw the film at least 200 times. In an interview with Leslie Katz of The Ethnic News Watch, Perel said about the film: "To see my mother, father, family on the screen with names that are so dear to me ... I just need to look in their eyes and I am reminded of the home and childhood that at age 14 was to me no more." (The Ethnic New Watch, October 22, 1993)
In the same interview, Solomon Perel speaks of the "psychological transformation" he underwent: "I was an enthusiastic Hitler Youth in order to save my life. I changed my identity and soul and thoughts. If I would think like a Jew, I would not be able to play my role so perfect, so I had to be an authentic member of this world destiny had pushed me into."
Perel was so integrated in the Hitler Youth that he still has some friendly relationships to some of the former Hitler Youth "comrades". "I would say my relations with them are especially ambivalent. They are my friends because destiny forced me to be their comrade for four years, but they also were my enemy. It is a very unique friendship." (The Ethnic News Watch, October 22, 1993)
In 1948 Perel immigrated to Israel where he met his wife and reunited with two brothers who survived the Holocaust. He lost his parents, sister and many other relatives in the Holocaust. "I would say my battle shock was very, very long. It was in me so deeply."
He didn't tell his story until 1983 when he was scheduled for an open heart surgery. "I felt maybe this operation will not be so successful and I didn't want to take my story into the grave."
The film was to a great degree a true story. Some parts of the film were changed, added or altered with Perel's approval for the sake of the film: His sister didn't die in Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938 but in a concentration camp in 1944. He says about this "It's not important when and where she died but the fact that she was killed." Perel also thought that some of the scenes were very odd or even "perverse." In one scene where he looks at himself in the mirror wearing a Nazi uniform and practicing the Heil-Hitler salute he was "struck by the absolute oddity of being a Jew dressed in a Hitler Youth uniform, dances a whimsical jig." (Leslie Katz, The Ethnic News Watch, October 22, 1933) These scenes "added more humor, sarcasm, a little perversion. It was a period of perversion," so Perel in the same interview.
Questions for the discussion:
- Who? Where? When? What? Give important names, places, dates and events in the film.
- Who is the main character of the film and how many identities does he have?
- When is his birthday and why is that important for the film?
- Divide his life in periods. How many periods are there?
- Describe the role of uniforms in the film?
- Describe some conflicts that Solomon had?
- How did he survive?
- In one of his dreams he sees Hitler and Stalin dance together while the Polish boy bleeds? Explain the meaning of this dream?
- How does he try to hide his Jewishness?
- Does he abandon his traditions? Why? Why not? How?
- Which Jewish holidays are celebrated in the film?
- What does the Nazi teacher say about "How you recognize a Jew and an Aryan?" Why is that so cynical or even "perverse"? What does it say about Nazi science?
- There are two good Germans in the film. Who are they and why were they good?
- Describe the "psychological transformation" Solomon went through.
- Miracles play an important part in Jewish history. Describe some of the "miracles" that happened to Solomon.
- What do the two brothers do at the very end of the film? Why? What does that mean?
- Why is the film called "Europa Europa" in English? Explain.
Send comments and questions to mesa@mcdaniel.edu Thanks!