Introduction to a Dark Past
Josef Mengele was a Nazi doctor who conducted sadistic experiments on Jewish people in the Auschwitz death camp. After the end of the war, the so-called “Angel of Death,” who was infamous for his murderous acts in the name of science, managed to evade capture in Germany and escape to Argentina with the help of former comrades in the SS – the elite guard of the Nazi regime.
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele
This is the starting point for a drama film that chronicles the war criminal’s successful attempts to evade trial as he moves from Buenos Aires to Paraguay via Brazil. Directed by a Russian filmmaker, the German-language film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and is being released in cinemas across Germany. Based on an award-winning book by a French journalist and writer, the film is a dark portrait of the roots – and consequences – of ideological extremism.
Looking for Justice
While Nazi architects of the Holocaust like Adolf Eichmann ultimately faced trial and execution, thousands of others fled with the support of collaborators, German immigrant sympathizers—and, in the case of Argentina, the help of President Juan Peron, an ally of European fascism. The film begins in 1956, when the German war criminal was living in exile in Buenos Aires under a false name. But Israeli secret service agents, West German officials, and Nazi hunters are on his trail.
The Elusive Mengele
Starring August Diehl in the title role, the film shows how money, connections, and a chameleon-like talent for disguise helped one of the world’s most wanted men evade international justice for decades. Mengele ultimately drowned on a Brazilian beach in 1979 due to a stroke. The film also shows how the man who carried out brutal eugenic experiments in Auschwitz can never escape his past. Old, lonely, sick, and living under a false identity in Sao Paulo, Mengele’s son tracks him down and wants to know what really happened in the camp.
Understanding the Banality of Evil
The director deliberately brought the viewer close to Mengele in order to make him understand his dogmatic way of thinking. This approach was partly inspired by the German-Jewish intellectual Hannah Arendt, whose concept of the "banality of evil" concluded that monsters are no different from ordinary people. The filmmaker insisted that this approach should never evoke sympathy. “Compassion for Mengele is impossible,” he said.
A Cautionary Tale of Ideological Extremism
The film also focuses on the network of people across Europe and South America who protected, financed, and hid Mengele until his death. “The evil is not only Mengele, but also all these people,” said the director. “Many of them got away scot-free.” Since the director is not a German speaker, he had a lot to learn about how generations of Germans have come to terms with this history. The film seeks to remind viewers of the dangers of dogma and the importance of preventing people from getting caught up in ideologies of any kind.
