Hi. Contribution to Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, 1998 - 2023 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Well, that is where the anomaly lay. New arrivals that were judged able to work were admitted into the camp, while those deemed unsuitable for labor were sent to the gas chambers. [96] This potential breakthrough was reported to Harel, but the logistics of staging a capture, the budgetary constraints of the search operation, and the priority of focusing on Israel's deteriorating relationship with Egypt led the Mossad chief to call off the manhunt in 1962. This latter disease,widespread in theso-called Roma Family Camp,where Mengele had had a laboratory, had been previously almost unknown in Europe. Among the papers was a letter from Wolfram Bossert notifying Sedlmeier of Mengele's death. While I may be overly sensitive on this point, the film seems to be focused on the lie the Israeli characters allowed to exist rather than on the unutterable evils perpetrated by the person they are hunting. 'The Debt': Getting in a little over its head? - Baltimore Sun [c] The Stammers later bought a bungalow in the Eldorado neighborhood of Diadema, So Paulo, which they rented out to Mengele. Eytan Fox's excellent 2004 film Walk on Water skillfully integrated the excitement of the chase with humane, intelligent reflection about what a man does to himself when he lowers himself to the standards of the oppressor. Because the film jumps the rails toward the end, it might be worth mentioning the good parts. The sterilization experiments consisted of exposing the womens ovaries and the mens testes to X-rays. [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. 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. How could he possibly be allowed to get away? The Debt | Christianity Today Despite being top Israeli agents, the three make some elementary mistakes. Of the Hungarians who arrived in mid-1944, 85 percent were killed immediately. They stay with him in an apartment building; he escapes, but the trio of young Agents lies to their government and tells them that Rachel killed Vogel while he was running away. They conducted criminal medical experiments on prisoners and committed other acts that violated medical ethics. This password will be used to sign into all. [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. [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. He was further disheartened by Rachels admission that she would continue propagating the lie to protect those closest to her, particularly her daughter. Mirren has the actors gift of appropriating dialogue as though it were truly her own. Plenty of gripping action and suspense as a young Mossad team are assigned to kidnap Dieter Vogel, the notorious 'The Surgeon of Birkenau" (Jesper Christensen - Mr White in the Craig Bond . They did so on commission from IG Farbenindustrie, and particularly from the Bayer firm, which was part of that cartel. He and Wiesenthal pressured the West German authorities into starting extradition proceedings, and an arrest warrant was drawn up on 5June 1959. 28 clinic in the main camp, he carried out assessments of prisoners attempting to gain admission to the hospital. Concurrently, David is escorted from his apartment by an Israeli government agent for a debriefing. There's nothing intrinsically sacrilegious or vulgar about framing a Holocaust story as a thriller. The Surgeon (2005) - News - IMDb Hollywood Fumbles Award-Winning Mossad Thriller - The Forward Elias story in Bernard Edinger, Claude Lanzmann Does it Again, The Jerusalem Report, (January 22, 2018). The interactions between Rachel and Vogel surely show the most dramatic tension ever established while knicker-free and in gynecological stirrups. Rachel (Jessica Chastain, left) and David (Sam Worthington) are '60s-era Mossad agents in John Madden's thriller The Debt. 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. If you replay the actual events in your mind, you realize all the suspense is created with editing, camera angles and POV. This brings skeletons out of closets at a rapid clip, most of them wrapped in long flashbacks to a dank safe house in East Berlin. [105] His body was buried in Embu das Artes under the name "Wolfgang Gerhard", whose identification Mengele had been using since 1971. [3][4] He was particularly interested in identical twins, people with heterochromia iridum (eyes of two different colors), dwarfs, and people with physical abnormalities. He served in this capacity at the gas chambers located in crematoria IV and V.[39], When an outbreak of nomaa gangrenous bacterial disease of the mouth and facestruck the Romani camp in 1943, Mengele initiated a study to determine the cause of the disease and develop a treatment. [45] His research subjects lived in their own barracks, where they were provided with a marginally better quality of food and somewhat improved living conditions than the other areas of the camp. 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. But the connections run deeper than that, a theme that recurs in the film. 5-Down, Eight Letters: Show that gave us New New York. [16] The American author Robert Jay Lifton notes that Mengele's published works were in keeping with the scientific mainstream of the time, and would probably have been viewed as valid scientific efforts even outside Nazi Germany. [35], Mengele's work also involved carrying out selections, a task that he chose to perform even when he was not assigned to do so, in the hope of finding subjects for his experiments,[36] with a particular interest in locating sets of twins. As soon as the examinations of a given pair of twins or dwarf were finished, Mengele ordered them killed by phenol injection so that he could go on to the next phase of his experiments, the comparative analysis of internal organs at autopsy. [122], In February 2010, a 180-page volume of Mengele's diary was sold by Alexander Autographs at auction for an undisclosed sum to the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. Summaries The year is 1965. [49] Rolf Mengele later claimed that his father had shown no remorse for his wartime activities.[50]. 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. 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. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search. Helen Mirren and all of the others in this great film are fantastic. Mengele was promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmfhrer ('captain') in April 1943. [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. In an article that he sent to Himmler in April 1944, titled The Effect of X-Ray Radiation on the human Reproductive Glands, Schumann expressed a preference for surgical castration, as being quicker and more certain. But such scenes were true to the original film and, because they were less heavy-handed, were done better the first time around, because of less Hollywood hype. 10 in the Main Camp was put at his disposal. [76][81] Mengele's business interests now included part ownership of Fadro Farm, a pharmaceutical company. They were so easy to victimize, so weak . "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. The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations. At a publishing ceremony, Rachel, her cheek conspicuously scarred, is asked to read aloud the chapter in which she and Vogel have their final, bloody confrontation a task she performs dutifully but with evident discomfort. [116] German authorities alerted the police in So Paulo, who then contacted the Bosserts. The movie drowns the deeper questions it raises in a sadistic procedural, an endless circular motion of fight scenes whose only justification is themselves. [67] He eventually escaped from Germany on 17 April 1949,[68][69] convinced that his capture would mean a trial and death sentence. At one point, he dares Rachel to slit his throat as she shaves him. Most recently, in the 2010 filmThe Debt(directed by John Madden), we hear the fictional Nazi Dieter Vogel, known also as the "Surgeon of Birkenau," insidiously proclaim: "You Jews never knew how to kill, only how to die. What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled. [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. [9][12] In 1935, Mengele earned a PhD in anthropology from the University of Munich. 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. They have been honored in their country by their action for more than 30 years. [107], Meanwhile, sightings of Mengele were being reported all over the world. 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. The Debt (2010) - Helen Mirren as Rachel Singer - IMDb The Debt (2010) - The Debt (2010) - User Reviews - IMDb 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. [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. Starring Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas, Jesper Christensen. The story deals with retired Mossad agents Rachel (Mirren), Stefan (Wilkinson) and David (Ciaran Hinds), and a 1965 mission that won them renown. [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. While the psychological depth of the older characters is deftly portrayed, Chastain as the young Rachel is too much of an incomprehensible cipher to carry a story of this weight. Rounding up our favorite funny videos of the month. [62] He and his unit then hurried west to avoid being captured by the Soviets, but were taken prisoners of war by the Americans in June 1945. [3] His medical procedures showed no consideration for the victims' health, safety, or physical and emotional suffering. This research was still ongoing when the Romani camp was liquidated and its remaining occupants killed in 1944. Describing the encounter to Stefan over the phone, Rachel declares she will not continue to lie about the 1965 mission. 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. But like many filmmakers transitioning between genres, Madden has focused his creative energies on retooling himself. Josef Rudolf Mengele ([jozf ml] (listen); 16 March 1911 7 February 1979), also known as the Angel of Death (German: Todesengel),[1] was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician during World WarII. 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. This film, directed by John Madden, is accompanied by an ample, stirring score, rapidly changing camera angles and excessive admiration time penciled in for flawless Hollywood faces. It was a rare moment of triumph near the end of an unimaginably painful journey. 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. They have been sent to track down and kidnap Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel, the "Surgeon of Birkenau", played by Bond baddie Jesper Christensen. [72] After a few weeks, he moved to the house of a Nazi sympathizer in the more affluent neighborhood of Florida Este. At the Block No. 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. Freevees new series will determine whos the greatest reality-TV contestant across. In the case of "The Debt," it is definitely the latter. Film considers time and space subjectively. [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. Since April 1944 Perl had been imprisoned in the Hungarian Women's Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was . Agents who were following Rudel's movements also failed to produce any leads. He used this document to obtain a West German passport using his real name and embarked on a trip to Europe. Copyright 2023 The Forward Association, Inc. All rights reserved. [102] Rolf, who had not seen his father since the ski holiday in 1956, visited him at the bungalow in 1977; he found an "unrepentant Nazi" who claimed he had never personally harmed anyone and only carried out his duties as an officer. The Debt (2010) - Plot - IMDb [13] His thesis on the subject earned him a cum laude doctorate in medicine (MD) from the University of Frankfurt in 1938. Kremer ordered most of them killed by phenol injection. Their mission is to captureNaziwar criminalDieter Vogel infamously known as "The Surgeon ofBirkenau" for his medical experimentsonJewsduringWorld War IIand bring him toIsraelto face justice. [52] The experiments he performed on twins included unnecessary amputation of limbs, intentionally infecting one twin with typhus or some other disease, and transfusing the blood of one twin into the other. [58] Alex Dekel, a survivor, reports witnessing Mengele performing vivisection without anesthesia, removing hearts and stomachs of victims. The third, David (Ciarn Hinds), unheard of since the sixties, has just turned up, too, looking dark, distraught, in a panic. SS physicians assigned to the concentration camps, including Auschwitz, played a special role. "At a time when Ahmadinejad's Iran regularly denies the Holocaust and anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews is back in vogue, this acquisition is especially significant", he said. 1966. As it turns out, at least two of them are also racked by guilt. (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. Most of the camp medical records had already been destroyed by the SS[62][63] by the time the Red Army liberated Auschwitz on 27 January. [48] In his 1986 book, Lifton describes Mengele as sadistic, lacking empathy, and extremely antisemitic, believing the Jews should be eliminated as an inferior and dangerous race. Former pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel put him in touch with the Nazi supporter Wolfgang Gerhard, who helped Mengele cross the border into Brazil. All rights reserved. [123] Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center was glad to see the diary fall into Jewish hands. [103], Mengele's health had been steadily deteriorating since 1972. 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). Tel Aviv, Israel. Maybe the Israeli version (which I havent seen) had so much psychological resonance that you could overlook the absurdities to come, but The Debt, after a gripping first half, turns into one howler after another. 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. That's intriguing for us, because "The Debt" does a splendid job of showing key early sequences in detail. The majority of the story is set in the earlier time period of 1966 where three Mossad agents (Marton Csokas, Jessica Chastain and Sam Worthington) come together to bring the Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel back to Israel to stand trial. [125], "Mengele" redirects here. Rachel poses as a woman consulting the ex-Nazi gynecologist, who is now in Buenos Aries. Dieter Vogel | Villains Wiki | Fandom The U2 singer called his Zelenskyy portrait a few squiggles and I just got out of the way.. 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). [23][24][25], In 1942, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), originally intended to house slave laborers, began to be used instead as a combined labour camp and extermination camp. This movie does some timeshifting between the time when the team tracked down and captured and then lost the Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel, the feared Surgeon of Birkenau, in East Berlin and the late 90's when the score was finally settled.The closing scene will have you white-knucked while holding onto your chair.
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