“Hitlerjunge Salomon”: Sally Perel died at the age of 97 NDR.de – News

Perel was born in Peine and survived the Holocaust under a false identity: As a Hitler Youth, he worked at the Volkswagen plant in Braunschweig, among other things. It was only decades later that the Shoah survivor began to speak about his experiences, especially in front of schoolchildren. His autobiography “I was Hitlerjunge Salomon” was filmed in 1990 by the Polish director Agnieszka Holland under the title “Hitlerjunge Salomon”.

Stephan Weil thanks Perel for his life’s work

In a first reaction, Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) expressed his condolences to the relatives and friends of Perel. Weil said he always admired Sally Perel for his incredible inner strength. “It must have been very difficult for him to pretend to be a Nazi in order to survive as a Jew. We are all infinitely grateful to him for reporting and writing about this time and for repeatedly seeking contact with children and young people,” he said Because.

Sally Perel became Josef “Jupp” Perjell

Sally Perel was one of the few surviving witnesses of the Holocaust. “It’s a miracle that I survived like this,” Perel said in an NDR interview in 2020. And a place where you have experienced a miracle, you love it forever. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Perel presented himself as an “ethnic German”. Sally Perel became Josef “Jupp” Perjell – a member of the German armed forces. This is how Perel survived the Holocaust.

“I was Hitler Youth Salomon” tells his story

It was not until 40 years after the end of the war that Perel wrote a book about his rescue: “I was Hitlerjunge Salomon” which was published in 1990. Again and again he went on reading trips to Germany – in schools he talked about his experiences from the Nazi era: To keep the memory alive, how he said.

Further information

The son of a Jewish rabbi from Peine, Lower Saxony, survived the Second World War as “Hitlerjunge Salomon”. (05/03/2022) more

230 Peiner students celebrated the new name on Friday. The 97-year-old Perel became famous as “Hitlerjunge Salomon”. (04/27/2022) more