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February 16, 2023

Remembering the Jew Who Disguised Himself as a Member of the Hitler Youth to Survive the Holocaust

Solomon Perel.

Captured by the German army when it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Solomon Perel—a Jew born in the German town of Peine—hid his identification papers and told his captors he was one of the many ethnic Germans living in the region. Perel was first given a job as a military translator, and then sent to a Hitler Youth boarding school inside the Reich. In his memoir Europa, Europa, which was turned into a film of the same name, he told his unusual and dramatic story. He died on February 7 at the age of ninety-seven. Richard Sandomir writes:

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February 16, 2023

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  4. Remembering the Jew Who Disguised Himself as a Member of the Hitler Youth to Survive the Holocaust

    Solomon Perel.

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