When Hitler came to power in the 1930s, Argentina had a substantial German-speaking minority of about a quarter of a million and was ripe soil for Nazi propaganda due to the country’s anti-Communist stance. In The German Doctor, Lucía Puenzo stages Argentinians coming to terms with their Nazi past; showing that there can be no innocent bystanders in the fight against fascism regardless of how long the war has been over. A doctor, who goes by Helmut Gregor, but is actually escaped war criminal Joseph Mengele, moves to Patagonia in 1960, where a German minority has thrived for decades. He befriends a young girl named Lilith while staying at her parents’ hotel. Over the course of the film, Mengele secretly observes and studies Lilith as an interesting medical case due to her small stature. Neither she, nor her parents or siblings know anything about the doctor’s Nazi past. But there are signs throughout the film like the Blood and Honor knife he uses to prick Lilith to take a sampling of her blood or how he follows the arrest of Adolf Eichmann with great interest. Furthermore, he is not the only former Nazi out in the town. An entire network of German expats tries to keep the doctor safe.

The German Doctor is not your typical anti-Nazi thriller, as we know that unlike Eichmann, Mengele was never captured. Thus, Puenzo’s film is really about the community around the German doctor. Who willingly turned a blind eye to war criminals? Who was still a committed Nazi despite the fall of the Third Reich? By staging Mengele’s interference in the family’s lives and showing Lilith’s day-to-day experience at the German school, Puenzo shines a light on a little-known chapter of Argentina’s history. What we learn is that former Nazis like Eichmann and Mengele never would have thought to seek refuge in Argentina, if there hadn’t already been a community of fascists operating there for decades. And that fascist ideas have managed to live on.

About the speaker

Priscilla Layne is Professor of German at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Priscilla's research and teaching draws on postcolonial studies, gender studies and critical race theory to address topics like representations of Blackness in literature and film, rebellion, and the concept of the Other in science fiction/fantasy.  In addition to her work on representations of Blackness in German culture, she has also published essays on Turkish German culture, translation, punk and film. She is the author of White Rebels in Black: German Appropriation of African American Culture (University of Michigan Press, 2018). Her current book project is on Afro-German Afrofuturism. Layne also holds an adjunct appointment in African, African American and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the Vice President of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).