Sally Perel: Hitlerjunge Salomon
Contemporary Witnesses in Conversation – Experiences and Fates of German Jews During the Nazi Era (video recording available, in German)
Sally Perel was born in Peine in April 1925. After his Polish father’s shoe shop was destroyed in 1935, he moved with his family from Peine to Lodz. Following the outbreak of war in September 1939, Sally Perel fled alone to eastern Poland, which by then was under Soviet rule. When – after the German invasion of the Soviet Union – he was arrested by the Wehrmacht, he pretended to be a Volksdeutscher and called himself Josef Perjell.
recording available
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)
Video recording of the eyewitness talk with Sally Perel on 12 June 2019, in German; Jewish Museum Berlin 2019
Up until the end of the war, he led a double life that forced him into the role of both victim and perpetrator. He worked as a translator for the Wehrmacht and was sent to Germany in 1944 because of his young age to the Academy for Youth Leadership of the Hitler Youth in Braunschweig. After the war he was captured by the Americans, but released after two days. He later emigrated to Palestine. In 1990, his memoirs were published and were filmed in the same year under the title Hitlerjunge Salomon.
Sally Perel, 2011; Photo: Julia Bauer Photographie
Contemporary Witnesses in Conversation
The Jewish Museum Berlin has invited contemporary witnesses to tell a wider audience about their fates during the Nazi era in a series of talks. Each one of them with a unique biography, they represent universal experience of survival – as forced laborers, in concentration camps, as people in hiding, on the run, and as immigrants. All our contemporary witnesses have a close association with the Jewish Museum Berlin as donors. The presentation of their donated objects, documents, and photographs, readings from autobiographical texts or excerpts from films precede the conversations.
With the support of Berliner Sparkasse
Event Series: Eyewitness Talks (16)
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Eyewitness Talks
In this event series eyewitnesses tell of their fates during the nazi era (video recordings available, in German)
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In Two Worlds
Eyewitness talk with Jack Weil, witness of the second generation, in German
Eyewitness Talk
Mon 10 Mar 2025, 7 pm -
Kurt Salomon Maier: Life and Trajectory of a Jewish Family from Baden
Born in southern Baden in 1930, he was deported to France at age ten. In 1941, an affidavit from relatives enabled his family to emigrate to the United States.
Eyewitness Talk
28 Oct 2024 -
Hidden in Enschede. Conversation with Contemporary Witness Herbert Zwartz
Part of the program accompanying the exhibition “My Verses Are Like Dynamite” Curt Bloch’s Underwater Cabaret, in German
Eyewitness Talk
16 Apr 2024 -
Ruth Weiss – Paths Through Tough Grass
Eyewitness Talk – Experiences and Fates of Jews during the Nazi Era, in German, with English and German subtitles
Video Recording
20 Sep 2022 -
Harry Raymon: Different from the Start
Harry Raymon was born in 1926 in Kirchberg, a town in the Hunsrück upland of southwestern Germany, to a family of Jewish businesspeople. In 1936, his family fled the Nazis and emigrated to the United States, in German
Video Recording
28 Feb 2022 -
In Conversation with Eva Schloss
On 27 January 1945, 15-year-old Eva Geiringer and her mother Elfriede were among the around 7,000 people who witnessed the liberation of the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps by the Soviet Army, in German, with English subtitles
Video Recording
27 Jan 2021 -
The Family Album
Peter Schaul recounts the life of his mother, Dora Schaul, whose estate is part of the interactive installation The Family Album, in German
Video Recording
9 Nov 2020 -
Zvi Aviram: Brushes with Death
Zvi Aviram was born in January 1927 in Berlin as Heinz Abrahamsohn. From age 14, he had to perform forced labor in the arms industry. During the so-called factory operation on 27 February 1943, his parents were arrested and deported and he himself went into illegality, in German
Video Recording
16 Sep 2019 -
Sally Perel: Hitlerjunge Salomon
Sally Perel was born in Peine in April 1925. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union he pretended to be a Volksdeutscher and called himself Josef Perjell, in German
Video Recording
12 Jun 2019 -
Peter Neuhof: A Youth in the Shadow of the Persecution
Peter Neuhof speaks about his memories and experiences in an interview with Aubrey Pomerance, head of the archive (in German). His parents were active members of the German Communist Party (KPD) and were arrested in 1943. Peter was able to remain in the parental home, in German
Video Recording
3 Dec 2018 -
Hanni Levy: Surviving in Berlin
Born in 1924, survived the Nazi era in hiding in Berlin with the help of friends, in German
Video Recording
25 Jun 2018 -
Anita Lasker Wallfisch
Born in Breslau in 1925, Anita Lasker Wallfisch studied cello in Berlin from 1938. In 1942, Anita’s parents were deported to Izbica and murdered, and in 1943 Anita and her sister Renate were deported to Ausschwitz, in German
Video Recording
28 May 2018 -
Margot Friedländer: Try to Make Your Life
Margot Friedländer was born in 1921 in Berlin and has had close ties with the museum for many years. She reads from her memoir, which takes its title from her mother’s last message to her: Try to Make Your Life. Followed by a brief discussion with Aubrey Pomerance, Head of the Archive, in German
Video Recording
9 Apr 2018 -
Walter Frankenstein: Not with Us
Born in 1924 in West Prussia, Walter Frankenstein lived in Berlin from 1936. When deportation threatened, he went into hiding with his wife and their five-week-old son. The family managed to survive with the help of friends, in German
Video Recording
31 Jan 2018 -
Kurt Roberg: A Visa Or Your Life
Born 1924 in Celle, emigration at the end of 1938 via the Netherlands, return to Berlin in March 1941 and re-emigration in May 1941 via Lisbon to the USA, in German
Video Recording
4 Dec 2017 -
Henry Wuga: A Nuremberger from Glasgow
Henry Wuga was born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father in Nuremberg in 1924. In 1938, his parents were able to send him to Scotland with a children’s transport, in German
Video Recording
23 Oct 2017
