A Brazilian boom of twins in Mengele’s wake
The Boys From Brazil is a 1978 film which describes a fictional Nazi conspiracy in South America. The film presents unusual male children who bare physical resemblances to a youthful Adolf Hitler, and although there are several different Boys the similarities between them and Hitler – and each other – are unnerving. In the film, a total of 94 boys, all of whom are clones of Adolf Hitler, are produced.
The children are then sent to various locations around the world to be raised in a manner similar to Hitler’s childhood, in the hope that one will grow into a living replica. The project is masterminded by a fictionalized Josef Mengele operating out of Paraguay.
Beginning in 1963 and continuing into the 21st century a small town in Brazil experienced birth rates of twins of about one in five pregnancies, vastly exceeding the normal rate. The overwhelming majority of these births have been blue-eyed, with blond hair. An unusually large number have been boys. The town is Candido Godoi, which welcomed the disguised Mengele in the 1960s. Residents of the town have discussed the circumstances of Mengele’s visits. Many recalled that Mengele openly discussed artificial insemination of women to increase the odds of successful pregnancy.
In 1969 Mengele, still living under various identities and assumed names, purchased half interest in a farm in Brazil near Sao Paulo. In the early 1970s, he acquired the identity and papers of Wolfgang Gerhard and took up residence in a small house in the Eldorado section of Sao Paulo.
His son Rolf visited him there in 1977 and later reported his father to have no regrets over his career and his activities, other than the loss of much of his work. Mengele still feared pursuit by both the West Germans and the Israelis, although subsequent to his death it became known that the Israelis suspended attempts to capture the fugitive in 1962.