Europa Movie, Essay Example

Introduction

The film of Europa/Europa is another film that depicts the holocaust in WW2 and focuses on the life of one individual ‘Soloman Perel’ who managed to survive the war.  The concept is based upon a young German Jewish boy that attempts to use deception in order to survive.  The strength of his survival is based upon his fluent and strong German language skills. He changes his name to Josef Peters and puts forward the image as an ethnic German. He later joins the Hitler Youth and as such lives in fear of being discovered as he was circumcised.

Elaboration in Movies

The film is said to portray a story of true events, nevertheless the movie producers do seem to have embellished it in order to make it more dramatic.  The focus is really based upon his fear of being discovered as a Jew.  This is enhanced by his sexual encounters with both a homosexual German officer and an anti-Semitic German woman who wants to father his child in pursuance of the Arian dream of a pure master race.  It is considered that these are potential fabrications in order to make the plot more viable and to get over two important theme concepts i.e. the Nazis involvement in ethnic cleansing  and their desire to rid impurities in genetics and create a master race of people.

When Josef is hired as a translator in Poland it is also questionable whether the German Authorities would have been fooled by his false identity.  At this time the Gestapo and German Police were very thorough in vetting all employees, primarily to prevent espionage and saboteurs. The Germans were meticulous in this process and cross-referenced records for validity and accuracy.  In general it is likely to be a true story but with certain modifications to adapt the story line to the movies.