Europa Europa

Agnieszka Holland tells the true and extraordinary story of a German Jew who survived the Holocaust by hiding where one would least expect it.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, a Jewish family flees persecution in Germany and escapes to Poland. They settle in Łódź. When war breaks out, they flee further south — a move that seems no wiser than fleeing west. Solly Perel and his brother David are sent by their father to the Soviet Union. As they cross the border river, they encounter other Jews fleeing in the opposite direction. The two brothers are separated.

• From the 1991 programme