The script, credited to Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman [sic] and Peter Straughan, might not rank high on the plausibility scale, but it sets up one tricky sequence after another. [42] The twin research was in part intended to prove the supremacy of heredity over the environment in determining phenotypes and thus strengthen the Nazi premise of the genetic superiority of the Aryan race. Ruth Elias was pregnant when she was transferred from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. Hi. The men are plainly awed by their sculpted, long-limbed female colleague, whom they must deliver to the medical office of Vogel, working incognito as a Think of the worst place on earth for a Jewish woman to be a patient, even a pretend patient. A botched operation to kidnap Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (aka "The Surgeon of Birkenau") in East Berlin results in a years long cover-up for the Mossad team that conducted the failed. Photo: Laurie Sparham/?Miramax Film Corp. All Rights Reserved. Back at the safe house, where rain drips atmospherically into buckets, the unrepentant prisoner spews venom about Jewish passivity in the camps while the Israelis stuff food into his uncooperative mouth. Based on entries in Mengele's journals and interviews with his friends, historians such as, Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, "Ultra-Orthodox man buys diaries of Nazi doctor Mengele for $245,000", "Scientists Decide Brazil Skeleton Is Josef Mengele", "Revisiting Mengele's Malignant "Race Science", "Wiesenthal Center Praises Acquisition of Mengele's Diary", "In the Matter of Josef Mengele: A Report to the Attorney General of the United States", "Mengele an Abortionist, Argentine Files Suggest", "Discovery, development, and current applications of DNA identity testing", "Why One Auschwitz Survivor Avoided Doctors for 65 Years", "Remains of Mengele Rest Uneasily in Brazil", "Nazi doctor Josef Mengele's bones used in Brazil forensic medicine courses", "The Ethical Legacy of Nazi Medical War Crimes: Origins, Human Experiments, and International Justice", "Bemerkungen zum Lebenslauf von Josef Mengele unter besonderer Bercksichtigung seiner Frankfurter Zeit", "Historical Analysis of 20 Name Files from CIA Records", "Skeletons in the Closet of German Science", "How Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele cheated justice for 34 years", "His secret out, Rolf Mengele talks about his father", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Josef_Mengele&oldid=1151778207, This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 05:19. All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1965, when the trio (Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington) tracked down Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen) in East Berlin. If you are experiencing difficulties logging in or are a subscriber getting a paywall, please try one or more of the following steps. Only how to die." Uber offering horse drawn carriage rides in honor of royal coronation. [66], After several months on the run, including a trip back to the Soviet-occupied area to recover his Auschwitz records, Mengele found work near Rosenheim as a farmhand. The three bought a coffee and cattle farm in Serra Negra in 1962, with Mengele owning a half interest. The three Mossad agents (one woman, two men) assigned to capture him in 1965 in East Berlin and smuggle him back to Israel for a public trial have lost loved ones to the Nazis and other enemies of their country, but they tackle their Mission: Impossiblelike stratagem with military efficiency at first. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Other than that, enjoy Villains Wiki!!! He was forced to return to work without painkillers. You have permission to edit this article. He enlisted the assistance of prisoner Berthold Epstein, a Jewish pediatrician and professor at Prague University. David had been investigating the man at Stefan's request and, according to Stefan, killed himself out of fear that the lie would be exposed. He performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) concentration camp, where he was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be killed in the gas chambers,[a] and was one of the doctors who administered the gas. Powers / Skills David and Rachel both lost family in World War II; his scenes with them, as they care for his basic needs and wait out the days in their damp, dank quarters, are some of the best in the movie. The story deals with retired Mossad agents Rachel (Mirren), Stefan (Wilkinson) and David (Ciaran Hinds), and a 1965 mission that won them renown. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. She leaves a note for the journalist and prepares to leave, but suddenly spots Vogel in his 80s by now among the other patients and follows him to an isolated area of the hospital. Genocidal Torturer, Psychological manipulationStrengthEvasionSkilled doctor at the times of WWIISkilled knifeman. The film falters at the very end, with an unnecessary and unlikely fight scene. Vogel is found. The building was then cleaned and disinfected and the occupants of a neighboring block were bathed, deloused, and given new clothing before being moved into the clean block. Under cover of night, the trio attempt their exfiltration atWollankstrasse Station, on a railway line along the sector boundary between East and West Berlin, and next to a mail depot. In close collaboration with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Genetics, and Eugenics, he studied the phenomena of twins, as well as the physiology and pathology of dwarfism. They succeed in the abduction, but fail in bringing him to the west side. A lie I have lived with for thirty years. Despite being top Israeli agents, the three make some elementary mistakes. The Mengele-at-large myth turns up in more complicated form in the new thriller The Debt, a remake of an Israeli film in which the doctor is used to explore/exploit the way Jews tend to live and re-live the capture of Nazis in their fantasies. Then there's an ingenious operation, which I will not describe, to spirit him out of his clinic and into captivity. Berger finished his work by June 15, 1943. Since April 1944 Perl had been imprisoned in the Hungarian Women's Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was . The Surgeon of BirkenauVogelDr. [83], Mengele's name was mentioned several times during the Nuremberg trials in the mid-1940s, but the Allied forces believed that he was probably already dead. [58] Alex Dekel, a survivor, reports witnessing Mengele performing vivisection without anesthesia, removing hearts and stomachs of victims. Reprinted with permission. Vogel [3][4] He was particularly interested in identical twins, people with heterochromia iridum (eyes of two different colors), dwarfs, and people with physical abnormalities. Similar procedures were used for later epidemics of scarlet fever and other diseases, with infected prisoners being killed in the gas chambers. [72] After a few weeks, he moved to the house of a Nazi sympathizer in the more affluent neighborhood of Florida Este. Through November 1944, SS doctors undermined their efforts through selection, which sent the sickest prisoners (only Jews after August 1943 . These three agents, Rachel (Jessica Chastain), Stephan (Marton Csokas) and David (Sam Worthington) are to capture the notorious Nazi war criminal, the Surgeon of Birkenau (Jesper Christensen), and bring him back for a proper trial of war time atrocities. Find Dr. Voegele's phone number, address, insurance information, hospital affiliations and more. Others, on the repugnance of their villains. Mirren has the actors gift of appropriating dialogue as though it were truly her own. The selection of 115 persons (79 Jewish men, 30 Jewish women, 2 Poles, and 4 Asians probably Soviet POWs) and the preliminary preparation, consisting of biometrical measurements and the collection of personal data, were carried out by Hirts collaborator, SS-Hauptsturmfhrer Dr. Bruno Beger, who arrived in Auschwitz in the first half of 1943. The sterilization experiments consisted of exposing the womens ovaries and the mens testes to X-rays. After a confrontation in which Vogel stabs her twice with scissors, Rachel kills Vogel by plunging a poisonedsyringeinto his back. He goads, wheedles and whispers to each by turn, commenting on their personalities and relationships and pushing them to react. Something happened however and Peretz always felt guilty about it. [34] As part of his duties, Mengele made weekly visits to the hospital barracks and ordered any prisoners who had not recovered after two weeks in bed to be sent to the gas chambers. Here, he presents himself as a choreographer of brutal action sequences designed more to goose our senses than to stimulate reflection on the ethics of extra-legal revenge. Eight of the photographs include Mengele. [49] Rolf Mengele later claimed that his father had shown no remorse for his wartime activities.[50]. [4] Many of his victims were dispatched to the gas chambers after about two weeks, and their skeletons were sent to Berlin for further analysis. The victims corpses were sent to Hirt as material for his skeleton collection, which was intended for use in anthropological studies that would demonstrate the superiority of the Nordic race. But like many filmmakers transitioning between genres, Madden has focused his creative energies on retooling himself. Dr. Mengele allegedly did surgery for the purpose of torturing the prisoners at Birkenau. [57] Mengele sought out pregnant women, on whom he would perform experiments before sending them to the gas chambers. The so-called Surgeon of Birkenau, Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), escaped justice at the end of the war. He drowned in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming off the coast of Bertioga, and was buried under the false name of Wolfgang Gerhard. As they prepare to load Vogel onto the stopped train he suddenly awakens and sounds the horn of the stolen mail van where he is being held, alertingEast German guardsto their presence. In January 1942, he joined the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking as a battalion medical officer. To kill Rachel and her Mossad team (failed).To escape from them much as he can for deny his terrible war crimes against humanity (failed). Later, at David's flat, Stefan provides evidence that Vogel now resides at an insane asylum inUkraine, and is soon scheduled to be interviewed by a local journalist. [34] If one twin died from disease, he would kill the other twin to allow comparative post-mortem reports to be produced for research purposes. There is still a love triangle here as well as a terrible secret that is eating them alive. Here the Mengele figure is called Dieter Vogel and played by Jesper Christensen as a Hannibal Lecterlike evil genius who can instantly read Jews minds and press the exact buttons to make them irrational with hurt and rage. What happens when you take an Israeli spy thriller and pump it up with high-budget steroids for a Hollywood remake? Evil-doer Because it flips between two eras, two people play each character: one older and one younger version of the same person. She reaches the room just minutes before the journalist and discovers the man claiming to be Vogel is an impostor, a senile old man who apparently fancies the notoriety. [9], As Von Verschuer's assistant, Mengele focused on the genetic factors that result in a cleft lip and palate, or a cleft chin. Mengele was born into a Catholic family[5] in Gnzburg, Bavaria on 16 March 1911, the eldest of three sons of Walburga (ne Hupfauer) and Karl Mengele. The original motion picture, Ha-Hov (The Debt) (2007), directed by Assaf Bernstein, was nominated for four Ophir Awards, the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars, but didnt garner much of an audience internationally. Minutes into the movie after a rousing flashback in which Hollywood It Girl Jessica Chastain (as young Rachel) gets to show off some nifty Krav Maga moves one of the three present-day Mossadniks has an unhappy encounter with a truck. Rachel becomes romantically entangled with both men, and although they take care to stay incognito during the mission, they randomly break character for a night out at a German pub, calling one other by their real names. His experiments focused primarily on twins, with no regard for the health or safety of the victims. [11] In 1931 he joined Der Stahlhelm, a paramilitary organization that was absorbed into the Nazi Sturmabteilung ('Storm Detachment'; SA) in 1934. The official reason was that he was shot as he attempted escape while being held by his Israeli captive (kiddenappers) in a safe house somewhere in Europe. The movie drowns the deeper questions it raises in a sadistic procedural, an endless circular motion of fight scenes whose only justification is themselves. And now, justice calls. [6] His two younger brothers were KarlJr. and Alois. In 1965, three Mossad Agents cross into East Berlin to apprehend a notorious Nazi war criminal. Scientifically interesting anatomical specimens were preserved and shipped to the Institute in Berlin-Dahlem for more detailed examination. As she limps from the asylum, Rachel's note is discovered and read by the journalist. Josef Mengele held a Ph.D. and a medical doctorate. Extensive forensic examination indicated with a high degree of probability that the body was indeed that of Josef Mengele. At one point, he dares Rachel to slit his throat as she shaves him. Mengele even makes a surprise appearance in Annie Jacobsens allegedly nonfiction book Area 51 as the scientist who, at the behest of Stalin, surgically altered children to look like Martians and thereby trigger a War of the Worldslike panic. In the case of "The Debt," it is definitely the latter. They have been sent to track down and kidnap Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel, the "Surgeon of Birkenau", played by Bond baddie Jesper Christensen. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Also furrowing madly is Rachel's former colleague Stephan (Wilkinson), now Rachel's estranged husband and a high-up in the Israeli government. Fatal Attraction Works As Entertainment, Fails as Social Commentary, Prime Videos Citadel Traps Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden in Played-Out Spy Game, New York Philharmonic and Steven Spielberg Celebrate the Music of John Williams, A Piece of His Fire: Harry Belafonte (1927-2023). [116] German authorities alerted the police in So Paulo, who then contacted the Bosserts. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Jesper Christensen's performance as Vogel stands out as chilling, an eerie mixing of grandfatherly charisma and cold hatred. [19] Nazi Germany attempted to obtain this new territory by attacking Poland and the Soviet Union, intending to deport or kill the Jews and Slavs living there, who were considered by the Nazis to be inferior to the Aryan master race. Heres What Will Happen to Your Fave TV Show If Theres a Writers Strike. There he temporarily entrusted his incriminating documents to a nurse with whom he had struck up a relationship. In 1997, Rachel is honoured by her daughter Sarah during a release party inTel Avivfor Sarah's book based on the account Rachel, Stefan and David gave of the events in 1965. David smashes a glass plate over Vogel's head and repeatedly beats him, only to be stopped and restrained by Stefan. [83][91] He stayed with Gerhard on his farm near So Paulo until a more permanent accommodation could be found, which came about with Hungarian expatriates Gza and Gitta Stammer. The Surgeon of Birkenau (Jesper Christensen), in East Berlin. Kremer selected prisoners who struck him as particularly good experimental material, and questioned them just before their deaths, as they lay on the autopsy table awaiting injection, about such personal details as their weight before arrest and any medicines they had used recently. [85] Working in West Germany, Nazi hunters Simon Wiesenthal and Hermann Langbein collected information from witnesses about Mengele's wartime activities. You see, the punch line spoiler alert is that the threesome didnt actually kill Vogel, as they told Israel and the world. There's a strange fillip of senior-action payoff in a Ukrainian hospital at the end, but by then you may be too worn out to harvest its moral significance let alone admire the twist ending. Sam Worthington as the young David meshes believably with Hinds as the older version of himself, and the fiery performance of Marton Csokas as the young Stefan (looking like a younger and even angrier Russell Crowe) outshines even Academy Award nominee Wilkinson. The film meets its first hurdle of casting challenges well. Concurrently, David is escorted from his apartment by an Israeli government agent for a debriefing. [37] In contrast to most of the other SS doctors, who viewed selections as one of their most stressful and unpleasant duties, he undertook the task with a flamboyant air, often smiling or whistling. Years later, the Israeli secret police force known as the Mossad tracks down the. The later scenes involve the publication of a book about the famous raid by Rachel's daughter. [26][27] Prisoners were transported there by rail from all over Nazi-controlled Europe, arriving in daily convoys. Many of them were at the point of exhaustion, in the Musselman state, in the final stages of starvation to death. He is an evil and ruthless Nazi war criminal who got his nickname from his medical experiments on Jews during World War II in the times of the Holocaust. The SS physicians who carried out pseudo-medical experiments in Auschwitz included: Carl Clauberg experimented with sterilization in the camp. For other uses, see. Dieter Vogel He suffered a stroke in 1976,[104] experienced high blood pressure, and developed an ear infection which affected his balance. [13] His thesis on the subject earned him a cum laude doctorate in medicine (MD) from the University of Frankfurt in 1938. Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. Vogel is the famed and feared "Surgeon of Birkenau," who sent thousands of Jews to their deaths at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp during the Holocaust. Of the Nazis who got away, the one who most insistently haunts Jewish pop culture is Josef Mengele, the SS physician who performed monstrous experiments on inmates (many of them children) at Auschwitz and Birkenau and escaped (with the help of the organization known as ODESSA) to Brazil and later Paraguay, where he died at the age of 71. [64] Mengele fled Gross-Rosen on 18 February, a week before the Soviets arrived there, and traveled westward to atec in Czechoslovakia, disguised as a Wehrmacht officer. Lies have piled up, and one way or another all three agents will emerge as tragic figures. It is a reunion of sorts for her and her ex-husband, Sarahs father, Stephan (Tom Wilkinson), the second of the Mossad agents who traveled to Berlin in 65. In fact he escaped and is now taking credit for his work at Birkenau in a hospital in Ukraine. The unidentified previous owner, who acquired the journals in Brazil, was reported to be close to the Mengele family. How could he possibly be allowed to get away? Two decades after Germany's defeat, as the legend goes, the three brought to book a notorious Nazi living large in East Berlin. So I knew that you people had. The Debt is adapted by British screenwriter Matthew Vaughn (with Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan) from the award-winning 2007 movie Hahov, which probed the morality of Mossad's pursuit of escaped Nazis a tender topic for the State of Israel and for Jews worldwide ever since the abduction and prosecution of Adolf Eichmann. Type of Villain In the Israeli version, the pain of the Holocaust, and the need to find the murderers who participated and make them pay for their wrongdoing, was paramount. The agents are left with no choice but to bring Vogel to their apartment and plan a new extraction. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, As supporters pray, Kim Pegula's father shares her words: 'I will continue to fight', Prayer and healing vigil for Bills and Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula scheduled for Saturday, WGRZ meteorologist Elyse Smith exiting station after three years, DeAndre Hopkins Watch: Receiver posts on Instagram, 'Who says I wanted to leave? He next worked as a salesman for his family's farm equipment company, Karl Mengele & Sons, and in 1951 he began making frequent trips to Paraguay as a regional sales representative. To be sure, the older actors get some excitement of their own, but by then, the plot has lost its way. Dieter Vogel, also known as The Surgeon of Birkenau, is the main antagonist in the 2010 remake of The Debt. It describes the truth of the mission, ready to be relayed to the world. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search. For these actions, Mengele was awarded the War Merit Cross (Second Class with swords) and was promoted in 1944 to First Physician of the Birkenau subcamp. Consider putting your feet in the stirrups for the Surgeon of Birkenau. The subjects were photographed, plaster casts were made of their teeth and jaws, and their fingerprints and toeprints were taken. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Their mission is to capture Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Christensen) - infamously known as "The Surgeon of Birkenau " for his medical experiments on Jews during World War II - and bring him to justice in Israel. SS Physicians Friedrich Entress, Helmuth Vetter and Eduard Wirths. hide caption, With: Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas. In the first phase of his experiments, Mengele subjected pairs of twins and people with physical handicaps to special medical examinations that could be carried out on the living organism. Following his recovery, he was transferred to the headquarters of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office in Berlin, at which point he resumed his association with VonVerschuer, who was now director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics. An elderly Vogel dies after having a poisoned syringe plunged into his back, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Their mission is to captureNaziwar criminalDieter Vogel infamously known as "The Surgeon ofBirkenau" for his medical experimentsonJewsduringWorld War IIand bring him toIsraelto face justice. [107], Meanwhile, sightings of Mengele were being reported all over the world. 28 clinic in the main camp, he carried out assessments of prisoners attempting to gain admission to the hospital. Not everything in the book is quite as it seems. Before the war, Mengele received doctorates in anthropology and medicine, and began a career as a researcher. The German physicians who ran SS and Wehrmacht medical institutions, along with medical personnel at lower levels, participated actively in carrying out Nazi extermination plans. In East Berlin, during the Cold War, they killed Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), aka the Surgeon of Birkenau, infamous for his Dr. Mengele-like experiments on Jews. Sure, the films most suspenseful moments are still there the moments when Rachel, pretending to be trying to conceive, visits the surgeon of Birkenau, now in hiding as a gynecologist practicing in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team's mission was accomplished--or was it? [103], Mengele's health had been steadily deteriorating since 1972. See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs. These are the staples of the typical James Bond film, and seem to be what film audiences want out of a European-based thriller. The German physicians who ran SS and Wehrmacht medical institutions, along with medical personnel at lower levels, participated actively in carrying out Nazi extermination plans. Alias It details how she shot their captured target, Dieter Vogel, otherwise known as the "Surgeon of Birkenau," when he attacked her and tried to escape. [99] The Stammers' friendship with Mengele deteriorated in late 1974, and when they bought a house in So Paulo, he was not invited to join them. Right, Dr. Mengeles OB-GYN examining room, in his stirrups. In 1965, Mossad Agents Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain), Stephan Gold (Marton Csokas), and David Peretz (Sam Worthington) are assigned to kidnap Nazi Dieter Vogel, a.k.a. Helen Mirren and all of the others in this great film are fantastic. [28] By July 1942, SS doctors were conducting "selections" where incoming Jews were segregated, and those considered able to work were admitted into the camp while those deemed unfit for labor were immediately killed in the gas chambers.
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