See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs. Berger finished his work by June 15, 1943. 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. 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. This research was still ongoing when the Romani camp was liquidated and its remaining occupants killed in 1944. Helen Mirren co-stars as the present-day Rachel, still dealing with the legacy of the mission that made her famous and changed her life. [7] Mengele was successful at school and developed an interest in music, art, and skiing. Because the film jumps the rails toward the end, it might be worth mentioning the good parts. Prisoner doctors / Camp hospitals / History / Auschwitz-Birkenau [3], When a typhus epidemic began in the women's camp, Mengele cleared one block of six hundred Jewish women and sent them to their deaths in the gas chambers. Similar procedures were used for later epidemics of scarlet fever and other diseases, with infected prisoners being killed in the gas chambers. [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. 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. Dr. Lothaire D. Voegele is a Thoracic Surgeon in Aiken, SC. Its Munich-meets-Fast and Furious (Fast and Fuhrerious?). X-ray sterilization equipment was set up for Schumann in one of the barracks at Birkenau. [119], In 1992, DNA testing confirmed Mengele's identity beyond doubt,[120] but family members refused repeated requests by Brazilian officials to repatriate the remains to Germany. 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. After going through quarantine, some of the prisoners whom Berger selected were sent in July and early August to Natzweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp, where they were killed in the gas chamber. . (Known as the Surgeon of Birkenau, he's modeled on Josef Mengele). Clauberg developed a method of non-surgical mass sterilization that consisted of introducing into the female reproductive organs a specially prepared chemical irritant that produced sever inflammation. They are Rachel Singer (. Three characters, six actors, and although the woman is always presumably Rachel, I was sometimes asking myself which of the two men I was seeing when younger. Dieter Vogel, also known as The Surgeon of Birkenau, is the main antagonist in the 2010 remake of The Debt. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Mirren mesmerizes in thinking-man's thriller | Washington Examiner 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. [2] His remains were disinterred and positively identified by forensic examination in 1985. Agents who were following Rudel's movements also failed to produce any leads. The movie drowns the deeper questions it raises in a sadistic procedural, an endless circular motion of fight scenes whose only justification is themselves. 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. Describing the encounter to Stefan over the phone, Rachel declares she will not continue to lie about the 1965 mission. The agents are left with no choice but to bring Vogel to their apartment and plan a new extraction. Josef Mengele - Wikipedia SS physicians assigned to the concentration camps, including Auschwitz, played a special role. You see, the punch line spoiler alert is that the threesome didnt actually kill Vogel, as they told Israel and the world. [43] Nyiszli and others reported that the twin studies may also have been motivated by an intention to uncover strategies for 'racially desirable' Germans to reproduce more twins. They succeed in the abduction, but fail in bringing him to the west side. The Debt begins in 1997, in Tel Aviv, where Rachel (Helen Mirren), the agent who allegedly brought Vogel down, is one of her countrys heroes and newly celebrated in a book by her daughter, Sarah (Romi Aboulafia). [26][27] Prisoners were transported there by rail from all over Nazi-controlled Europe, arriving in daily convoys. Several hundred Jewish women from various countries lived in two large rooms on the second floor of the building. Powers / Skills Film raises weighty moral issues - The Catholic Leader We meet Mirren's Rachel Singer in 1997, furrowing her brow while trying to look gracious at a Tel Aviv party for her beloved daughter Sarah (Romi Aboulafia), who's written a book lionizing her mother's career. A timeline of Justin Bieber, Hailey Bieber, and Selena Gomezs love triangle. In East Berlin, during the Cold War, they killed. The third, David (Ciarn Hinds), unheard of since the sixties, has just turned up, too, looking dark, distraught, in a panic. 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. [23][33] Mengele's application was accepted and he was posted to Auschwitz, where he was appointed by SS-Standortarzt Eduard Wirths, chief medical officer at Auschwitz, to the position of chief physician of the Zigeunerfamilienlager (Romani family camp) at Birkenau,[23][33] a subcamp located on the main Auschwitz complex. Tel Aviv, Israel. During his shift, David becomes violently enraged after Vogel explains his beliefs that Jews have many weaknesses, such as selfishness, making them easily subdued. [38][34] He was one of the SS doctors responsible for supervising the administration of Zyklon B, the cyanide-based pesticide that was used for the mass killings in the Birkenau gas chambers. Their inquiries in Paraguay revealed no clues to his whereabouts, and they were unable to intercept any correspondence between Mengele and his wife Martha, who by this time was living in Italy. [29] The arrivals that were selected to die, about three-quarters of the total,[b] included almost all children, women with small children, pregnant women, all the elderly, and all of those who appeared (in a brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor) to be not completely fit and healthy. In fact he escaped and is now taking credit for his work at Birkenau in a hospital in Ukraine. Dr. Lothaire D. Voegele, MD | Aiken, SC | Thoracic Surgeon | US News The Debt | Movies | Detroit | Detroit Metro Times [18], The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics, and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum (living space) for the Germanic people. "The Debt" opens in 1997, with two members of an elite, legendary Mossad team responsible for the capture and killing of a Nazi war criminal in East Berlin in 1966 coming together at a launch party for a book detailing their famous mission. The director, John Madden, is canny enough to know where the true suspense lies: in the faces of the characters. You spent 30 years taking credit for it. The plan goes awry leaving them stranded in East Berlin with Vogel aka The Surgeon of Birkenau. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library, The Vrba-Wetzler Report (Auschwitz Protocols), Nazis Planned to Move Auschwitz Gas Chambers to Mauthausen, Testimony of Engineer Kurt Prufer on Crematorium Design, Testimony of Engineer Fritz Sander on Crematorium Design, Testimony of Engineer Karl Schultze on Crematorium Design, House Resolution Commemorating Liberation of Auschwitz, Senate Resolution Commemorating Liberation of Auschwitz, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Speech At Birkenau, Address by Prime Minister Rabin at Auschwitz, U.S. They did so on commission from IG Farbenindustrie, and particularly from the Bayer firm, which was part of that cartel. [114], On 31 May 1985, acting on intelligence received by the West German prosecutor's office, police raided the house of Hans Sedlmeier, a lifelong friend of Mengele and sales manager of the family firm in Gnzburg. The results of the X-ray sterilization experiments were unsatisfactory. Schumann applied various intensities at various intervals in his search for the optimal dose of radiation. [79][80] When he returned to Argentina in September 1956, Mengele began living under his real name. Through November 1944, SS doctors undermined their efforts through selection, which sent the sickest prisoners (only Jews after August 1943 . Among the papers was a letter from Wolfram Bossert notifying Sedlmeier of Mengele's death. 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. The exposure to radiation produced severe burns on the belly, groin, and buttocks areas of the subjects, and festering sores that were resistant to healing. 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. Nicholas D. D'Angelo, an attorney from Niagara County, will serve six months in jail and also will be placed on sex offender probation for 10 . To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. Copyright 2023 The Forward Association, Inc. All rights reserved. In a thriller, you must be sure. [125], "Mengele" redirects here. An elderly Vogel dies after having a poisoned syringe plunged into his back, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds bring along the weight of their many earlier roles. More than half of The Debt is set in East Berlin, where young Rachel is now Jessica Chastain, Stephan is played by Martin Csokas, and Davids avatar is Sam Worthington. Gerhard persuaded the couple not to report Mengele's location to the authorities by convincing them that they themselves could be implicated for harboring a fugitive. Reprinted with permission. [93] In February 1961, West Germany widened its extradition request to include Brazil, having been tipped off to the possibility that Mengele had relocated there. Trending in reviews - amazon.com The agents take turns monitoring and feeding Vogel, who attempts to psychologically humiliate and intimidate them. Dovid Braun is appointed YIVOs Academic Advisor in Yiddish. [103], Mengele's health had been steadily deteriorating since 1972. 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. Detlev Vogel (born 1942) is a German historian who specialises in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. In June 1943, Clauberg wrote to Heinrich Himmler: Like Clauberg, Horst Schumann was searching for a convenient means of mass sterilization that would enable the Third Reich to carry out the biological destruction of conquered nations by scientific methods through depriving people of their reproductive capacity. 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. The film switches back and forth from the present day, as Rachel struggles with David's death and the secret that has weighed on her for decades, and 1966, as Rachel, David and Stephan (portrayed in their younger years by Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas) carry out their mission to get Vogel. Laurie Sparham/Focus Features The Surgeon of Birkenau (Jesper Christensen), in East Berlin. He was forced to return to work without painkillers. [115] They found a coded address book and copies of letters sent to and received from Mengele. Pegulas fight to heal and rehabilitate from a brain injury suffered after a cardiac arrest last June has been one that is long and largely private. People are also reading You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. But like many filmmakers transitioning between genres, Madden has focused his creative energies on retooling himself. Settling A Tab? Aware that the publicity could lead to his Nazi background and wartime activities being discovered, he took an extended business trip to Paraguay and was granted citizenship there in 1959 under the name "Jos Mengele". [3][4] With Red Army troops sweeping through German-occupied Poland, Mengele was transferred 280 kilometres (170mi) from Auschwitz to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp on 17 January 1945, ten days before the arrival of the Soviet forces at Auschwitz. Mengele was promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmfhrer ('captain') in April 1943. )[15] In a letter of recommendation, VonVerschuer praised Mengele's reliability and his ability to verbally present complex material in a clear manner. [60] Witness Vera Alexander described how Mengele sewed two Romani twins together, back to back, in a crude attempt to create conjoined twins;[53] both children died of gangrene after several days of suffering. The sterilization experiments consisted of exposing the womens ovaries and the mens testes to X-rays. "The Debt" weaves a tangled web of lies and deceptions around a seemingly heroic raid in 1965 carried out by three agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency known for more ability than it exhibits here. [13] His thesis on the subject earned him a cum laude doctorate in medicine (MD) from the University of Frankfurt in 1938. The three bought a coffee and cattle farm in Serra Negra in 1962, with Mengele owning a half interest. Now, Im not a purist I dont always believe that original versions of films are better (although actually, when I think about it, I cant think of a single remade version of a film that surpasses the first).