— Overview
The film, for this reader, is about a boy who must change his name to stay alive, and about how hard it is to remain oneself.
— Contents and key concepts
A 1990 film, and a birthday shared with Hitler
Reading Lee Hong-jong on international relations in cinema, a student is held by Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa, released in 1990. The film follows Solomon Perel, a Jewish boy born in Peine on 20 April 1925, the same calendar day as Hitler, and the conflict of identity that wartime forces on him.
His father Azriel keeps a shoe shop; his mother is Rebecca. He is the fourth child. The film begins at his birth, but the focus falls after Germany invades Poland: his sister is killed, and his father sends him away with his brother Isaak.
An orphanage, an interpreter, a borrowed self
Separated from Isaak on the road, Solomon is sent to an orphanage in the part of Poland that has become Soviet, and spends his youth among Communists. When the German-Soviet pact breaks and war turns again, he flees once more, is caught, and, to stay alive, says that he is German. His fluent German persuades them; they use the boy who also speaks Russian as an interpreter.
Under a rule that divides the world into “us” and “them,” he lives like a chameleon. A mark of circumcision will not go away, however hard he tries to hide it, and that, for the reader, is also the identity he cannot erase.
Robert’s answer, and a bitter title
One exchange stays in the ear. Solomon learns that Robert Kellermann, a German soldier, was once an actor, and asks whether it is hard to play someone else. “Easier than being yourself,” Robert says. Solomon spends the war doing just that.
The title, this reading says, comes from Romain Gary’s Education europeenne, with its sense of Europe as a highest value. In the film that claim turns ironic: an ideology of pure blood produces the worst of situations. A German officer can look at Solomon’s face and call him a pure Aryan. The same Korean reading, at its full length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- A student reading of Agnieszka Holland’s 1990 film Europa Europa, through Solomon Perel’s borrowed names and a line from Robert Kellermann.
Last updated 15 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
Who directed Europa Europa, and whose life does it follow?
Agnieszka Holland directed the 1990 film. It follows Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy born on 20 April 1925 in Peine, the same calendar day as Hitler, who survives by passing as an ethnic German.
What path does Solomon take in the film, as this reading tells it?
After his sister is killed, his father sends him and his brother Isaak to flee. He is separated from Isaak, spends years in a Soviet orphanage, and later, captured by German soldiers, claims to be German. They believe his fluent German and use him as an interpreter.
Which exchange stays with the reader?
Solomon asks Robert Kellermann, a German soldier who had been an actor, whether it is hard to play someone else. Robert answers that it is easier than being oneself. The title is said to come from Romain Gary’s Education europeenne.
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