108 EUROPA EUROPA [GerMAn tItLe: HITLERJUNGE SALOMON]
Production
Europa Europa was filmed (in German) in Poland over a four- month period in the
summer and fall of 1989. Interior scenes were shot at FilmPolski’s Studio, Film-
owe Perspektywain, in Warsaw while exteriors were filmed in Lódz and environs,
for example, at the Jewish Cemetery; in the Plac Koscielny (Church Square); on
the Przybyszewskiego, one of the main east- west streets in the city center (the trol-
ley scene through the Lódz Ghetto); at an abandoned factory (the Hitler Youth
combat scene near the end of the film), etc.Plot Summary
Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider) and his family live in Nazi Germany. On the
eve of Perel’s bar mitzvah, Kristallnacht (Nov. 9–10, 1938) occurs. As Nazis stone
the house, Solomon escapes from a bath and hides naked in a barrel in an adjacent
alley. The next morning a neighbor gives him a new coat with a swastika- laden arm-
band. Clothed, he returns home, only to find that his sister Bertha (Marta Sandro-
wicz) has been killed by the Nazis. Solly’s father (Klaus Abramowsky), who was
born in Łódź, Poland, decides to return there, taking his family with him, that is,
his wife (Michèle Gleizer), Solomon, and two other sons: David (Piotr Kozlowski)
and Isaak (René Hofschneider). In Łódź Perel enjoys a brief affair with Basia
(Nathalie Schmidt), a cinema cashier, but his halcyon interlude ends when the Nazis
invade Poland, starting World War II. Perel’s family decides he and his brother
should move farther east. Isaak and Solomon flee but are separated, and Solomon is
placed in a Soviet orphanage with other refugees from Poland. He lives there for
two years, joins the Komsomol, and undergoes Communist indoctrination. He
develops a romantic interest in Inna (Delphine Forest), an attractive young teacher
who stands up for him when school administrators uncover his bourgeois social
class. When Germany invades the Soviet Union, all of the children are evacuated
from the orphanage, but Solomon is left behind during an air attack. He dis-
cards his identity papers and tells the Germans who capture him that he is “Josef
Peters,” a Volksdeutscher (ethnic German) from a Baltic German family. When the
Germans capture Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin’s son, Solomon helps by translating
Rus sian. They call him “Jupp” (a baby name) and adopt him as an auxiliary. Fluent
in German and Rus sian, Solly becomes an interpreter but is still in grave danger; he
must stay modestly covered, lest anyone see his circumcised penis and realize that
he is Jewish. Robert (André Wilms), a homosexual soldier, catches sight of Jupp
while he is bathing, however, the pair become friends when they realize that they
both carry secrets that would lead to death, should the Nazis find out. Not long
after, Robert is killed in battle. While attempting to reach the Soviet lines, Jupp
goes across a bridge and unwittingly brings a German unit along with him. The
Soviets are forced to surrender, and the Germans praise Jupp for his heroics. Jupp
is then sent to the elite Hitler Youth Acad emy in Braunschweig to receive a full Nazi
education. While at school, “Peters” is labeled a combat hero. He still strug gles to
hide his circumcision, and Solomon uses string and rubber bands to simulate a
foreskin: efforts that result in an excruciatingly painful infection. He successfully
dodges a medical exam by feigning a toothache, but then has to have a healthy tooth