Europa Europa (1990) on Netflix
On the eve of Solek's bar mitzvah, Kristallnacht strikes and his family moves to Łódź. When Germany invades Poland, Solek and his brother Isaak are sent east and separated.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.5/1018,785 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
When the Germans invade Poland, Solek and his brother Isaak are sent east from Łódź and are separated, and Soviet troops bring Solek to an orphanage in Grodno, where he joins the Komsomol, learns Russian and takes an interest in Inna, an instructor. His family leaves Nazi Germany for Łódź after Kristallnacht, on the eve of his bar mitzvah, and a letter tells him his parents are imprisoned in the ghetto there. German soldiers capture him, and he hides his papers and claims to be Josef Peters, a Volksdeutscher from Grodno. His fluent German and Russian make him useful to the unit as an interpreter, and he must keep anyone from seeing that he is circumcised.
Cast
- Bernhard Howeas Feldwebel
- Klaus Kowatschas Schulz
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Europa Europa (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The German Export Film Union refused to submit Europa Europa for a Best Foreign Film Oscar, ruling it did not qualify as a German film even though it was a German-Polish-French co-production, and committee members reportedly called the film "junk" and "an embarrassment".
- Europa Europa is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German-Jewish boy who survived the Holocaust by posing as a Nazi and joining the Hitler Youth; Perel himself appears briefly as "himself" in the film's finale.
