Europa, Europa [Hardcover]

Solomon Perel (Author), Margot Bettauer Dembo (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471172189 | ISBN-13: 978-0471172185 | Publication Date: May 27, 1997 | Edition: 1

The Inspiration Behind The Golden Globe --Winning Film

"An engrossing and memorable tale."Jewish Book World

"The sheer emotion of telling the tale is palpable. The whole is moving, and strange beyond belief." --The Times (London)

International acclaim for Solomon Perel's Europa Europa

"The wrenching memoir of a young man who survived the Holocaust by concealing his Jewish identity and finding unexpected refuge as a member of the Hitler Youth.

"It is a Holocaust memoir that is moving, straightforward, and quite completely bizarre, unsettling in all kinds of assumptions about identity, responsibility, and guilt." --Glasgow Herald

"Perel bares his soul to readers in this fascinating, unusual personal narrative of the Holocaust." --Book Report

"Many of the experiences of Holocaust survivors are incredible. None is more incredible than the story of a Jewish boy, Solomon Perel, who escaped from Germany to Russia, served with the Wehrmacht in Russia, was adopted by his commanding officer, and transferred to an elite Hitler Youth school." --London Jewish News

"A most remarkable story . . . extraordinary." --The Australian

"This book will move human hearts." --Berliner Morgenpost

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Solomon Perel's may be one of the strangest wartime memoirs ever committed to print. At the outbreak of World War II Perel, a young Polish Jew, was interned in a Soviet orphanage. Captured by Wehrmacht soldiers, Perel, fluent in Russian and German, passed himself off as an ethnic German and was adopted by the Nazi unit to act as a translator--and as something of a mascot. Sent to Berlin to an all-male military school, Perel managed against all odds to keep his secret (after the war, he revealed his true identity to his disbelieving comrades-in-arms); in the meantime, his family perished. Now available for the first time in English translation, the full book revels in a sharp sense of irony and an ever-unfolding abundance of improbable episodes.

From Library Journal

In this inspiration for the 1990 Golden Globe-winning film, Europa, Europa, appearing now in English translation, Perel details his remarkable story of survival as a Jewish boy during World War II. While fleeing eastward from German-occupied Poland, he fell into German hands. Amazingly, he managed to convince his captors that he, too, was German, though orphaned. The Germans accepted him into their ranks and sent him to an elite training school for the Hitler Youth until war's end. Though his story offers a vastly different view of the war, Perel spends less time on details of the Nazi regime and instead focuses on his fear of detection. The resulting repetition can make for disappointing reading. Perel's story is indeed incredible, but it is not that well written. Recommended only for large public libraries or Holocaust collections.?Jill Jaracz, Chicago, Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471172189
• ISBN-13: 978-0471172185
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,286,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Saga of Duplicitous Existence, August 12, 1997

By 

Bluerigged "jsnapper" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Europa, Europa (Hardcover)

Solomon Perel's story is unique. His acceptance by the Nazis as an "ethnic German" leads to a double existence - a jingoistic Hitler Youth on the outside, and a pensive tortured Jew on the inside. It is this battle between "Jupp" and "Solly" that captures the reader; and it is quite clear that even Mr. Perel himself has yet to integrate these two contradicting personalities. Europa, Europa admirably describes the experiences of Solly Perel, and continually amazes with its remarkable developments and stunning coincidences. In the end, the story best illustrates the irrationality of racial hatred. While his Nazi acquaintances held Jupp in great esteem, the same individuals would have surely killed Solly without much thought

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fate and luck, March 3, 2002

By 

matt (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Europa, Europa (Hardcover)

Book review: Europa Europa

Europa Europa is an extraordinary story experienced by quite a normal fellow. The story is about the Jewish boy Solomon Perel who was born in Germany in 1925 and lived there for some years but as the Nazi society developed in Germany he and his family were forced to move eastward. To avoid humiliation and persecution by the Germans they settled in Poland. He got separated from most of his family in Poland and with his brother he fled to Russia. There he lived until Germany invaded Russia and suddenly he was forced into using his basic instincts for staying alive. A German military group captured the Jews they found and started questioning them and if they were Jews they shot them in the nearby forest. Solomon Perel obviously spoke German and he miraculously managed to convince the German soldiers that he wasnt a Jew but a normal ethnic German and that this was a mistake. From that day on and until the end of the war he lived with the Nazis as if he was one of them. He even entered the Hitler Jugend after returning to Germany, and he had to sing along to the songs about spilling the blood of the Jews.

The story, which is authentic, is so special because there naturally were so many encounters were one wrong move would definitely have lead to his dead but he survived. Throughout the whole book you wonder about Luck and Fate. It is filled with situations where you think that either this is just pure luck or maybe it is meant for him to stay alive. But maybe in the end it was his only his own willpower that made him do exactly what his mother had told him in her last words before the separated, you must stay alive.

The book is great and very interesting. Not so much because of the way it is written since the best thing isnt the quality of the writing but more the story that brings you so close to a human, which lived through the greatest fears.

Matthias Petersen

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A really good and interesting book., April 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Europa, Europa (Paperback)

As far as I remember I saw the film version of this book before I read it. I recommend that the book be read before watching the movie. This is a book I've read two times and it was definately worth the time. Unimaginable what it must've been like to be in his place. Survival was the driving force for Perel. Great book.