1. Solomon Perel was a German-born Israeli author and motivational speaker.
18 Facts About Solomon Perel
1. 2.
Solomon Perel was born to a German-Jewish family and managed to escape persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an ethnic German.
3.
Solomon Perel made several visits to various schools to tell his story.
4.
Solomon Perel succeeded and was placed in a Komsomol-run orphanage in Grodno, while his brother made his way to Vilnius in Lithuania.
5.
Solomon Perel fled from the orphanage after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and was captured near Grodno by the 12th Panzer Division.
6.
Solomon Perel became endeared to his German army unit, and many years later, already in Israel, was invited to the 12th Panzer Division Reunion.
7.
Solomon Perel conjured various excuses to avoid medical examinations that would have revealed he was circumcised.
8.
Solomon Perel managed to fight him off, but when he turned around, the doctor saw that he was circumcised and realized he was a Jew.
9.
The doctor did not inform on Solomon Perel, as doing so would have exposed him as a homosexual.
10.
Solomon Perel 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.
11.
Towards the end of the war, Solomon Perel was drafted into the army as an infantryman and assigned to guard a bridge armed with a Panzerfaust.
12.
Solomon Perel was released the next day as he was a junior conscript.
13.
Solomon Perel resolved to join him, and in July 1948 sailed for Haifa in the newly declared state of Israel.
14.
Solomon 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.
15.
Solomon Perel died in Tel Aviv, Israel on 2 February 2023, at the age of 97.
16.
Solomon Perel later wrote a book about his exploits, titled Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon.
17.
Solomon Perel often toured and gave talks throughout Europe about his wartime experiences.
18.
Solomon Perel visited Waalwijk, Zevenbergen and Abbekerk to see the play.