Sally Perel

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Sally Perel, 2016

Sally Perel (born April 21, 1925 in Peine , actually Salomon Perel , also known under the name Shlomo Perel or Solomon Perel , during the Nazi dictatorship Josef Perjell ) is an Israeli author of German origin. As a member of the Hitler Youth , he managed to hide his Jewish identity and survive National Socialism . His autobiography I was Hitler Youth Salomon was filmed in 1990 under the title Hitler Youth Salomon . To this day Perel attends schools to tell about his life.

Life during National Socialism

With the seizure of power of the NSDAP , the discrimination against the stricter Jews in Germany . After their shoe shop in Peine was devastated by the Nazis, the Perel family moved to Łódź in Poland in 1935 or 1936 .

After the German attack on Poland in 1939 and the subsequent division of Poland between Germany and the USSR, Sally Perel fled to the now Soviet part of Poland .

When he separated from his parents, his mother gave him the following words:

"You should live!"

He himself interprets these words as an order to live his life. This thought helped him in later times to make decisions and, for example, to deny his Jewish origin, for example by giving another name (Joseph).

During the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union , Perel was captured by the Wehrmacht . Since he spoke perfect German, he could pretend to be an ethnic German and disguise his Jewish origins. He subsequently acted as a German-Russian translator for the Wehrmacht, from July 1941 to around December 1941 in the reconnaissance company of the 12th Panzer Division and then in the Army Food Service 722 in Reval . He called himself Josef Perjell; his nickname was Jupp.

His real identity was revealed by a comrade at the front who, as a homosexual, had an interest in Sally Perel. When he realized that Perel was Jewish, he assured him not to betray him and a friendship developed. After two years in the Wehrmacht, he was brought back to Germany. Captain von Münchow wanted to adopt him and made sure that Sally Perel went to the Academy for Youth Leadership of the Hitler Youth in Braunschweig until shortly before the end of the war . Due to the constant presence of National Socialism at the school of the Hitler Youth (HJ), he began to identify with this policy by his own account. He later described the dictatorship as a poison that was instilled into young brains every day. At the HJ school, a teacher of racial studies identified him as a member of the "Baltic / Aryan race", not as a Jew. Perel had to constantly hide his circumcision and always keep a cool head in order to be able to react quickly to unusual inquiries and to avoid detection. At the end of the war he became a soldier again. He was captured by the US Army and released a short time later.

Life after World War II

Sally Perel, Madrid Book Fair 2014, book title: Tú tienes que vivir

Apart from his brothers Isaak and David, no member of the Perel family survived the Holocaust . After this time, Perel emigrated to Israel because he wanted to help build the Jewish state. It took him 40 years to process what he had experienced before he finally decided, after a heart operation in 1985, to write a book with his story. Perel wrote the book in German. He stated that by doing this the (hidden Hitler Youth) Jupp "wanted out of him". It appeared in 1990 as Europa, Europa in French, 1991 in Hebrew ( קוראים לי שלמה פרל Qôr'əîm lî Schəlomo Perel ) and the following year under the title Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon in German. The book was made into a film by Agnieszka Holland in 1990 under the title Hitlerjunge Salomon (English title: Europa, Europa ). Sally Perel continues to live in Israel today.

Since around the 1990s he has been on reading tours through Germany, mostly twice a year. In particular, he is invited to readings and lectures in schools in order to bring his experiences during the time of National Socialism closer to the younger generation.

Honors

Sally Perel with the Oberhausen Ring of Honor (2016)

The council of his birth town Peine awarded Sally Perel the ring of honor on June 15, 2000.

On February 15, 2016, the city of Oberhausen awarded Sally Perel the ring of honor. This decision was made by an intergroup with a unanimous decision in the council of elders.

The integrated comprehensive school in Braunschweig-Volkmarode has been called Sally-Perel-Gesamtschule since the 2018/2019 school year . The name was changed on September 14, 2018 in his presence.

The secondary school in Meinersen has been called Sally-Perel-Realschule Meinersen since the 2019/2020 school year .

On August 26, 2020, Sally Perel was made honorary citizen of the city of Braunschweig .

Works

  • Sally Perel: I was a Hitler Youth, Salomon. Nicolai, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-87584-424-6 .
  • Moshe Shen, Julie Nicholson, Sara Frenkel , Sally Perel: Surviving in fear: four Jews report on their time at the Volkswagen plant from 1943 to 1945. Heel, Königswinter 2005, ISBN 3-935112-21-1 .

play

  • You should live. Play in three acts by Carl Slotboom, Plausus Theaterverlag Bonn

Video installation

  • “4 × Sally” by Friedemann Derschmidt (filmmaker, Vienna) and Shimon Lev (artist, Israel) shown on December 5, 2016 in the Jewish Museum Vienna

literature

  • Salomon Perl (Shlomo Perel): A Jewish Hitler Youth. In: Reinhard Bein (ed.): Jews in Braunschweig 1900–1945. Materials on national history. 2nd amended and edition. Döring, Braunschweig 1988, DNB 860052826 , pp. 155-163.
  • Tim Sparenberg: "Power comes from below". The border crossing of the "new people" Stepan Podlubnyj and Sally Perel between victim and perpetrator. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 57 (2009), pp. 986–999.

Web links

Commons : Sally Perel  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sally Perel: I was Salomon, a Hitler Youth. Heyne, Munich 2016, ISBN 9783453534834 , p. 64.
  2. ↑ Photo of the master sheet , accessed on July 8, 2019
  3. ↑ Report on a Perel reading at hiergeblieben.de; Retrieved December 7, 2012
  4. ↑ The tears flowed inward . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1992 ( online - Sally Perel in an interview with Der Spiegel).
  5. ^ List of Perel's publications. DNB
  6. ↑ Sally Perel Comprehensive School celebrates its renaming. Retrieved September 22, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Sally Perel received honorary citizenship from the city of Braunschweig on July 15, 2020 on braunschweig.de
  8. ↑ Cornelia Steiner: Sally Perel: I love Braunschweig forever. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung of August 27, 2020.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Paterno: The dramatic double life of the "Hitler Youth Salomon". profil.at, December 6, 2016; accessed December 8, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Perel, Sally
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Perel, Selomo; Perel, Shlomo; Perel, Solomon; Perjell, Josef (pseudonym); Perjel, Josef (pseudonym); Peryel, Yozef (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Holocaust survivor and author
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Torment