When the Nazis came to power, systematic persecution of Germany's Jewish citizens began. In 1935, the Perel family relocated to Łódź, Poland, where Solomon's aunt lived, after their shoe store was deliberately pillaged and Perel was expelled from his school. After the Germans invaded Poland in September, 1939, Solomon Perel and his brother Isaak attempted to escape to the Soviet-occupied part of Poland. Solomon succeeded and was placed in a Komsomol-run orphanage in Grodno, while his brother made his way to Vilnius in Lithuania. Perel fled from the orphanage after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, and was captured by a German army unit. Since he was a native German speaker, Perel was able to convince his captors that he was a Volksdeutscher, and was subsequently accepted into his captors' unit as a Russian–German interpreter. He played a key role in the capture of Joseph Stalin's son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, and thereafter became endeared to his German army unit. The unit's commanding officer even made plans to adopt him, providing him with further protection. As a circumcised Jew, Perel was constantly in danger of being discovered by his military unit, and attempted on several occasions to flee back to the Soviets, each time unsuccessfully. Being still a minor, Perel was told he could not remain with the army. Instead, he was sent to a Hitler Youth boarding school in Braunschweig, where he continued to hide his Jewish identity under the name of Josef Perjell. At the time he had a girlfriend by the name of Leni Latsch. She was a member of the Nazi-instituted League of German Girls, so although Perel loved Leni he dared not tell her that he was Jewish, fearing of her informing the authorities. Later, Leni's widowed mother discovered he was Jewish but did not reveal his secret. On the night of 20 April 1945, the eve of his 20th birthday and close to the end of the war, Perel was captured by a U.S. Army unit, but released the next day. After traveling back to his birthplace, and making dozens of inquiries, he finally located his brother Isaak, who was married and living in Munich. Perel moved to Munich to be with him. He learned that his father had died of starvation in the Łódź ghetto, his mother was murdered in a gassing truck in 1944, and his sister was shot while on a death march. Likewise he learned that his other brother, David, was alive and in Palestine. Solomon resolved to join him, and in July 1948 sailed for Haifa, in the newly declared state of Israel. Once in Israel, Perel joined the army to fight in the Israeli Independence war. After being released from the Israeli army he became a businessman. Perel did not return to Germany until 1985, at the invitation of the Mayor of Peine, to participate in a commemoration of the destruction of the Peine Synagogue.
''I Was Hitler Youth Salomon''
Perel later wrote a book about his exploits, titled Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon. His work was later adapted into the 1990 film Europa Europa, produced by CCC Film. He often tours and gives talks throughout Europe about his wartime experiences. The Dutch playwright Carl Slotboom wrote a play based on Perel's story titled Du sollst leben, which was first aired in Zevenbergen, Netherlands, on 4 May 2012, which is also Remembrance of the Dead in the Netherlands. Salomon Perel visited Zevenbergen to see the play.
