The best source of information about Perl's action is the organizer himself. Watch a short excerpt from his film testimony.
William Perl was born in September 1906 in Prague and grew up in Vienna. He studied law and economics, became involved in Zionist youth activities, and leaned towards the revisionist movement. He was a favourite of Volodymyr Jabotinsky, a leading figure of the Revisionists, and after the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, as a young lawyer he became involved in the effort to get as many Jewish youth as possible, initially especially members of the Betar youth movement, to Palestine.
At the same time, he married Lore Rollig, who was not Jewish and converted to Judaism because of the marriage. William emigrated to the USA in 1940, his efforts to get his wife out of Europe failed. Lore was arrested by the Gestapo for helping Jewish children, but survived the war. After the war, William rescued her with great difficulty from the Russian sector of Allied-occupied Austria.
He was an investigator of several war crimes, such as the Malmedy massacre in Belgium, and continued his activities to rescue Jews living in unfreedom behind the so-called Iron Curtain, i.e., on the territory of the Russian colonial empire.
The interview was recorded on January 10, 1997 in Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
Were you surprised by anything in this testimony? What?