Shlomo Perel was born to in Germany in 1925 to a Jewish family. In 1936, his family moved to Lodz, Poland. Following the outbreak of World War II, Shlomo and his brother fled eastwards to the territories of the Soviet Union. Shlomo was taken into a children's home in Grodno, escaping following the German invasion in 1941. He was captured, and then assumed an identity as an ethnic German. Shlomo was drafted to the German military as a translator, and later sent to a Hitler Youth camp in Germany. After liberation, he reunited with his brother who had survived Dachau, immigrated to Israel, and took part in Israel's War of Independence. Shlomo married Dora and they have children and grandchildren.