The testimony video "'Because You Must Live' - The Story of Shlomo (Solly) Perel" portrays the events in Shlomo's life during the Holocaust period. Shlomo was born in Germany in 1925, and was eight years old when the Nazis rose to power. In 1936, following the worsening situation for Jews in Germany, his parents decided to move to the city of Lodz, Poland. With the outbreak of war, Shlomo and his brother escaped eastward, to Soviet-controlled territories. Shlomo was taken into a children's home and, following the German invasion of 1941, he was captured, going under an assumed German identity as "Josef Perjell." He was employed by the German army as a translator, and later sent to a Hitler Youth boarding school, then drafted to the army as a soldier, ending up in American captivity. After the war he was reunited with his brother who had survived.
This site present an educational activity dealing with questions of identity and its complexity in Shlomo Perel's world, as they arise from the video - from childhood, through the war years, and up to liberation.
The activity includes segments from the video, accompanied by questions for classroom discussion.
After the activity, the video can be viewed in its entirety.
