Das Verschwinden des Josef Mengele

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele

This film portrays Josef Mengele's life after the war, hiding in South America. It contrasts the genteel, almost surreal gatherings of Nazi elites in Argentina with his constant fear of being hunted — by Mossad, but never by German authorities. In the 1960s, he meets his long-haired son, who presses him about his crimes in Auschwitz. Mengele refuses to answer, but the film itself shifts from black-and-white into color to confront the viewer with the atrocities he committed. Scenes of idyllic family life by the lake are disturbingly intercut with haunting re-creations of camp horrors — such as an orchestra of little people forced to play beside trains unloading Jewish prisoners. The narrative follows Mengele through to 1979, still in exile, still consumed by paranoia. What emerges is a chilling portrait of denial, banality, and the thin shadow of remorse.