Based on an autobiography written by Solomon Perel, ‘Europa Europa’ is a 1990 film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The movie had been made in German. The original title in German is ‘Hitlerjunge Salomon’, which translates to ‘Hitler Youth Salomon’. The lead characters have been portrayed by Marco Hofschneider and Julie Delpy. The film also stars Solomon Perel who plays himself. It revolves around a young Jewish boy who survives the persecution from the Nazis by posing as an Aryan German. The movie reveals the good and evil traits that every person inhibits. But what needs to be remembered is that at the end of the day, each one is a human. Read through the following lines to know more about the plot and summary of ‘Europa Europa’.
Europa Europa Story
Solomon (also called Solek and Solly) is happily living with his family in Germany. However, they become the victim of a Kristallnacht where his sister is killed. But, he, his parents and his two brothers, David and Isaak manage to escape to Lodz, Poland assuming that they would be safe there. Nonetheless, Poland is attacked by Germany during the September Campaign. Solek and his bother, David are sent to the other side of Poland but get separated due to confusion. Thus, Solek lands up in a Soviet orphanage in Grodno. However, to Solek’s disappointment, Soviet Union too is attacked by Germany and he is captured by the German soldiers.
Due to his good command over German and Russian, he convinces them to become an interpreter. He meets Stalin’s son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, captured by the Germans at the same time. He pretends to be a German named Josef “Jupp” Peters. However, his identity is discovered by a gay German soldier, Robert, who, in turn, keeps the piece of information to himself. Hence, two become good friends. Later, Robert and two other comrades are killed in combat. Next, Solek tries to escape to Soviet but he is followed by a few German soldiers. He pretends to command the Soviets to surrender. In doing so, the Germans see him as a war hero. He is then sent to an elite Hitler Youth School, where his captain from Pomerania agrees to adopt him.
In the train, he realizes that he shares quite a few similarities with Hitler including his birthday and physical attributes. The woman escorting him gets physically and sexually attracted towards him. Both are seen having sex. At the school, Solek (Josef) is seen to have traits of an Aryan when the reality is that he is a Jew. On learning that a doctor would be visiting the school to perform a health examination, Solek worries that his circumcision and Jewish identity would be revealed. Hence, he pretends to have a severe toothache and escapes the examination. Solek finds his love interest in a German girl named Leni, a fervent Nazi who lost her father in the war. However, he cannot get intimate with her without revealing his secret.
Months pass by and Solek and Leni do not see each other. One fine day, Solek visits his new mother and learns that Leni is pregnant and is planning to give the baby to the Fuhrer. Solek realizes that the father of the baby is none other than Gerd, his best friend at Hitler Youth School. Here, he also reveals his truth of being a Jewish and promises not to tell Leni about it. War breaks and the boys at the Hitler Youth are sent to the border of Berlin to fight. While at the border, he surrenders to the Red Army by speaking Russian demanding that he is a Jew, not a German. Almost about to have been shot, his brother Isaak recognizes him and saves him. He then emigrates to the British Mandate of Palestine where he is reunited with his Jewish heritage.
