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The Week in Germany: Culture November 3, 2006Solomon Perel, the Jewish Hitler Youth, is Honored by Volkswagen Sally Perel, a Jew who escaped the Holocaust by assuming an identity as an ethnic German and joining the Hitler Youth during World War II, was honored by the Volkswagen company with a plaque at the factory in Braunschweig where he was an apprentice during the War. Perel, whose parents sent him to an orphanage in Russia after Nazi Germany invaded Poland, escaped deportation by claiming he was an ethnic German from Russia named Josef Perjell. Because he could speak both German and Russian fluently, he talked his would be captors into a job as an interpreter and eventually lived with a German family in Braunschweig, where he became a member of the Hitler Youth.
“I used to come into this building every day scared of being caught,” Perel said of the Braunschweig VW factory where he helped build military vehicles during the war. “If I had known back then that I would be standing here today, a welcome guest using my real name, I would not have had to be scared.” A club of current Volkswagen apprentices and retirees that researches the company’s history commemorated his ordeal with a plaque in the factory. Perel has lived in Israel since 1948. His autobiography was made into
the film “Europa Europa” and also earned him Germany’s
highest civil honor. Links:
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