The Boys from Brazil

Literary Essay | The boys from Brazil | Written by Ira levin |

A horrible plan is devised by former Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele. Journalist Yakov Lieberman, Jewish journalist, and Nazi hunter, discovers the plans of Mengele. His plan is to kill the fathers of the 94 boys, who are made by Joseph Mengele himself by cloning the DNA of Adolf Hitler. The two hunt each other, which comes to a climax at the home of one of the children, namely family Wheelock.
Mengele’s experiment is about making clones of Adolf Hitler himself, and with this terrifying plan, Joseph Mengele would like to take over the world with clones of Hitler.
My research question: Is Mengele able to dominate the world by using clones of Hitler?
The question now is what does Mengele want to achieve? First, Joseph Mengele is an old Nazi-doctor, who worked in a concentration camp in Auschwitz during the second world war. Mengele wants to take over the world, making a fourth Reich, with the goal to continue the ideas of Hitler. The ideas are that the world has to be inhabited by people who do not have any deviations.
This is based on the relieve that Mengele and his comrades see the German people as the purest and most beautiful race on earth, and what needs to be brought back.
The way in which Mengele wants to achieve this goal is complicated. He wants to get his hands on the world, by cloning the genetic material of Adolf Hitler in 94 boys . The boys arise and live in a simulated environment, where their parents have the same jobs as Hitler’s parents did have. Mengele thinks this will increase the chance for the arise of the new Hitler.
But why this way? First by using of clones, the offspring who has the same genetic characteristics as the cruel dictator. The idea is that when you have the same DNA, you are identical and to your predecessor, with the same characteristics.
Second, during the reign of the Nazis, Hitler won the votes of the people by praising them. He impressed the people by telling them they were strong and said tha other people made the Germans worse, he created a perfect situation to come to power. Mengele wants to achieve a Fourth Reich in exactly the same way, therefore he needs a descendant of Hitler.

The murders all took place under conditions and with a reason. The gruesome plan of Mengele now is to murder the fathers of the boys at the time the boys are 12 years old, because Hitler lost his father at the same age, according to Mengele this moment in Hitler’s life would have been decisive for the development of the beast in him. Lieberman discovers Mengele’s plan , and he immediately takes action.
This story takes place in 1976, almost 30 years after the Second World War. After the war, Joseph Mengele fled to Brazil and adopted a different name. Because Mengele is 'underground', he is free to free put his plan into practice.
Namely the people all over the world think that Joseph Mengele no longer exists, that the Nazi regime was ousted, and gone forever, so they thought they did not have to worry about a new rise of the Nazi regime.

But will Mengele’s plan succeed? Mengele will not able to take power in this way, and I will explain why not.
First, Mengele is chasing Lieberman, because Lieberman has discovered the plan of Mengele to kill a next victim, Mr. Henry Wheelock. Lieberman is doing everything to prevent this murder. But Mengele spied Liebermann and knows to visit Wheelock earlier.
When Mengele is trying to persuade and cajole the son of Mr. Wheelock, by saying that he is a descendant of Hitler and he is the greatest, he gets an unexpected answer: “Who are my parents? He challenged ‘Who am I?’ “Your father is Adolf Hitler”
“You know what?” the boy said. “You are the biggest nut I have ever met!”
The son of Wheelock's has been to school and had lessons in History. He knows better than to believe just a strange guy. The son did not think about the possibility of recombination techniques. If even one child says it's an idiot plan, it says enough. Everyone is conviced Mengele is crazy.

Second, the plan is a big gamble. It is impossible to create a cruel person like Hitler by cloning his DNA and raise the boys in slightly similar conditions. It is impossible to form a new leader. That Hitler developed such radical ideas was a combination of character, living conditions and social events, such as the economy of Germany and the First world war.
It is simply impossible to replicate the conditions and therefore it will not be possible to create a new Hitler as Mengele tells himself.

Mengele thinks because genetic material is present in the boys, they start acting like Hitler. But what it important is that genes do not control the mind. The boys will not get extreme ideas only by the genes. Even if they were not told what happened to their genetics and that their fathers were murdered.

The main character of the book, Yakov Liebermann is a survivor of the concentration camps and knows the infamous Joseph Mengele. He also knows what happened with twins in Auschwitz, and what role Mengele has played in it. Lieberman will do everything to stop Mengele to perform his horrible plans for he learned from history. He does everything to thwart the plans, so that history cannot repeat itself.

Finally, everyone in the world has learned from the Second World War except Mengele.
However, that Mengele comes up with this plan to the lines of Hitler and this strategy again, this but will never work. It is not possible to grasp the way Hitler did, namely power - winning over and then make afraid. After the war there are innovations, more control and intelligence which make it all that much harder.
It seems like Mengele played the role of the famous wizard Catweazle, who also suddenly comes into the modern era and has to deal with major changes.
Mengele does not realize that the world has changed, that the world has learned from the horrors that have happened. Mengele didn’t learn from the mistakes, and now he made a mistake again.

Conclusion
The conclusion is that in addition to DNA, there are other factors in the formation of someone's personality. The plan was good, but he was too naïve like to forget what happened in the past. He only thinks about his target, is concentrated too much, and lost the conspectus.
Mengele is a dedicated man, but his plan would not work, that is clear. He has everything figured out, but he did not think about the opponents.

The story is exciting and it draws you into the story quickly. But the points that make the story and the plan of Mengele are clearly difficult to get out.
Furthermore, the book is well written with many exciting pieces that make you think, like why Mengele now need exactly the clones? Very interesting for a discussion, for instance.
I must say that the story is very good, exactly what I expected of it.

Sources:
- The boys from Brazil by Ira Levin.
- life of Hitler: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler.