Ironically, a great war movie typically shows humanity at its worst. Films as masterful asSteven Spielberg’sSchindler’s Listpartially derive their power fromexposing viewers to horrors too hellish to imagine, which is why Hollywood often doesn’t need to stray too far from historical records when dramatizing periods as bleak as World War II. At a time when the planet knew nothing but its own conflict, projects like HBO’sBand of Brothersillustrate the power to be found from adapting true stories of the war’s survivors, but even for Hollywood, there’s one WWII drama with sucha far-fetched premise that it’s almost impossible to believe the film’s events actually happened. Yet, despite the unlikelihood of its existence, nothing quite compares to the unique experience of 1990’sEuropa Europa.
Directed by Polish filmmakerAgnieszka Holland,Europa Europais based on a memoir of the same name bythe deceased Solomon Perel, a German-born man of Jewish descent who is forced to resort to unconventional means in order to survive the Nazis during WWII. Released in the United States in 1991,the film went on to win a Golden Globe for best foreign film, as well as accolades from various critical circles in Boston and New York. The film’s release even caused a stir in Germany at the time, where the country’s decision not to submit Holland’s drama to theAcademy Awardsresulted in protests from prominent German filmmakers and madeEuropa Europaone of the world’sbest films overlooked by the Academy Awards. Regardless of this oversight, however, Holland’s adaptation was still nominated for best adapted screenplay, standing the test of time asa distinct narrative of boyhood and tragedy spun out of Perel’s unbelievable upbringing.
Europa Europa
During World War II, a Jewish boy survives by posing as an Aryan. His journey takes him through various identities and dangerous situations, showcasing the lengths he goes to for survival and the complexities of his dual identity in a time of intense persecution.
What Is ‘Europa Europa’ About?
Ina war film that’s gripping from start to finish, Holland’s movie first follows Solomon (Marco Hofschneider) as a young boy and culminates with his escape during the allied invasion of Germany at the end of WWII. Growing up in southern Germany at the beginning ofEuropa Europa, Solomon and his family are forced to move to Poland afteran anti-Semitic attack results in the death of Solomon’s sister.This temporary safety is shattered, however, by Hitler’s invasion of the country soon after, prompting the Perels to send Solomon and his brother, Isaak, on the run to Russia. After the pair is separated at the border, Solomon manages to hide in a Bolshevik orphanage for two years before the Germans once again catch up with him. This time, however, Solomon doesn’t run, concealing his identity andclaiming to be an ethnic German in a ruse that ultimately saves his life.
From this point onward,Europa Europacaptures the most death-defying, implausible details of alife that’s even stranger than its movie. After convincing the German unit that discovers him of his Aryan identity,Solomon works as an interpreter on the eastern front under the name Josef Jupp, becoming his squad’s good-luck charm after helping to interrogate the captured son of Joseph Stalin on the same day, and ingratiates himself so much to his commander (Hanns Zischler) that the German officer adopts him. As a result of thisdark father-son relationship in the movie, Solomon immediately leaves the front and returns to Germany, this time as a student at an exclusive boarding school for the Hitler Youth, whereSolomon successfully poses undercover as an overzealous Nazi until the end of the war.
Upon the movie’s release in the United States, the real Solomon Perel did clarify that the movie wasn’t entirely accurate, but the disparities between Holland’s dramatization and Perel’s lived experiences stilldon’t take away from the bravery ofEuropa Europa’s main character. Unlike in Holland’s ending, where Solomon abandons his classmates and is saved from a Soviet execution by the sudden appearance of his long-lost brother, the real Perel actually found Isaak after the war in Dachau concentration camp, the same death camp that hauntsLeonardo DiCaprio’s character inShutter Island.That said, Perel’s years-long deception of the German army really did happen, the details surrounding his escape are accurate, andhis time with the Hitler Youth was truly just the start of a deeply troubled adolescence.
‘Europa Europa’ Brings Coming-of-Age Storytelling to a Unique WWII War Movie
What might surprise most viewers of Holland’s WWII movie is just how little the film actually focuses on the conflict itself. Although the film showcases Solomon’s time with the German army in brutal detail, depicting his crisis of conscience as he questions howthe same men who treat him kindly can slaughter innocents so maliciously,Europa Europauses its broader conflict as a backdrop for Solomon’s personal development. In this way, the film feels more like a biopic as it explores Solomon’s struggle to survive aNazi regime hostile to war films in the first place, such as when an early attempt to surrender to the Russian army inadvertently leads his unit to an unintentional victory. However,Europa Europaprimarily emphasizes Solomon’s experiences as a teenager living through warwhen he’s undercover with the Hitler Youth halfway through the movie.
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Despite its horrific setting, Holland’sfilm still lets Solomon undergo plenty of rites of passage as he plays his own part in aWWII movie that takes place deep behind enemy lines. Grateful for the school’s separate showers that allow him to hide his circumcision, Solomon is actually able to blend in with his Nazi classmates assomeone audiences can recognize as an almost normal high school student, excelling at swimming and even developing an awkward crush on a female classmate, Leni (Julie Delpy). This temporary reprieve from the horrors of war injects a refreshingly sweet tone to arecent genre of WWII filmsthat is justifiably pretty bleak, which only makes it all the more disturbing when the consequences of living in Nazi society rear their ugly head. Whether it’s being lectured about the evils of Jewish culture or being fed propaganda about Aryan genetics,Europa Europamakes it clear thatSolomon can never feel safe so long as he remains himself.
The Central Conflict of ‘Europa Europa’ Is a Matter of Personal Identity
The internal struggle between Solomon’s dual identities forms the backbone of Holland’s movie. From the moment Solomon buries his identification papers in the dirt and invents a new persona for himself in Russia,Europa Europa’s main character is split between the memories of his family and the knowledge that his classmates would tear him apartif they realized howSolomon lied in order to live.Apart from being objectively terrifying,Solomon’s struggle is relatable for any member of an ostracized group who dons a social mask in order to passas part of a dangerous status quo, with Holland’s film ultimately emphasizingthe emotional toll of burying one’s true identity in order to appease a bigoted society.
Not only does Solomon’s desire for Leni conflict with his heritage when he realizes his crush is also highly anti-Semitic, butSolomon suffers from survivor’s guilt once he discovers the true price of his deceptions.Towards the end of the film, Holland adapts one of the darkest moments in Solomon’s real life when herwar movie’s self-declared soldieruses his Hitler Youth status to tour the Polish Ghetto where his family lived, witnessingall the cruelty and mass murder he so narrowly avoided by embracing his personal fiction.In the later years of Solomon’s real life, the cost ofPerel’s social deceptions even took on a life of their own, with the survivor referring to his dueling personas in the third person and still occasionally experiencing thoughts through the anti-Semitic filter he had to adopt in his years undercover. And while Solomon only embraced self-hatred in order to survive, his later struggles underscore the dark impact of the formative years depicted inEuropa Europa.
Understandably, the legacy of both Solomon and Holland’s film garnered mixed reactions in the years after Perel’s story became known. Even at the end ofEuropa Europa, soviet officers are inherently uncomfortable withthe morality of someone hiding so enthusiastically among the enemy, while many in the Jewish community were said to bristle at the idea that Solomon would ever abandon his Jewish identity, even to survive. Personal feelings aside, however, viewers' misgivings can’t take away from the fact thatEuropa Europaisa faithful adaptation of an incredible true story,one that follows Solomon Perel from refugee to soldier to student until he finally breaks free of his forced identity. A film that illustrates the childish humanity at the dark heart of humanity, Holland’s award-winning masterpiece ultimately teaches audiences the self-destructive cost of intolerance thatSolomon would lecture against for the rest of his long, well-earned life.
