Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

I'm reading The Boys From Brazil and doing background reading on Mengele in South America.

He had a son who had met his father twice. Once on a skiing vacation when he was 12. He was told that Mengele was his uncle. The second meeting was 20 years later when the son, Rolf, went to stay with his father in South America. He knew where Mengele was the whole time and never told.

What would you have done?

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Did the son know about what his father had done?

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

I was watching a documentary about Mengele just the other day.

I have to say that if I had had the responsibility of that boy I probably would have kept him away from his father...FOREVER.

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Yes he did. He knew he wass wanted for trial. The son is a lawyer btw.

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Bats, thank you for this thread. Because of this I just watched the 1978 documentary (narrated by Leonard Nimoy!) on Mengele. I knew the basics of the story but the details of the complicity are shocking.

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Like you I knew the horrific basics about his experiments and yes the complicity is shocking. He must have been a psychopath but the many were willing to help him can't all have been psycho. Was the documentary on Netflix? I'll look for it later.

I don't understand why the son didn't turn him in - there was no parental relationship between them after all.

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Now we have seen a few threads on BE where somebody did something and should someone have reported them.
Ive even seen the comment " Nobody likes a Grass"

Now because of who this person was and what he did would their comments still stand?
Luckily I have fairly high morals and providing the evidence against the person is pretty much watertight then I would be informing the authorities. Sometimes mere suspicion isn't enough.

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Questions about moral conundrums aren't applicable to those people in state uniform and with clipboards... we all know, and you keep saying, you're only "following orders" ;););););)

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Im not in uniform anymore but I keep following orders :lol:

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

You're missing the point here. Josef Mengele was Rolf's father. Rolf knew this, still used that surname, knew all the time where he could be found yet never told. he knew that Germany and Israel wanted to try him for war crimes. Is is loyalty to a father he wasn't raised by understandable?

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

I'm assuming that people know who Josef Mengele was

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

Im not missing the point. Some on here might argue regardless of who he was or what he did his son shouldn't be a grass.
Its a morals issue and we all have different tolerances. Would you grass your husband up for cheating on his taxes and you knew about it and if not why not.
Sure its apples and oranges but the principle is still the same they both did wrong.

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

No I don't think it's comparable at all. Cheating on taxes, experimenting on live children. Hmm one of those is inherently evil.

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

They both broke a law albeit one on a scale of 1 and the other plus one with many zeroes.
Many are calling for Tony Blair and George W Bush to be tried for War Crimes but chances are it won't happen. How many agreed with what they did and how many thousands of innocents died?
Most sensible people would say his son should have told the authorities but he didn't and there was no legal requirement to do so.
Now answer this should the SAS take out Osama's son which is being alleged in the UK press. Shouldn't he have informed on his dad?

Re: Moral conundrums. What do you think, or hope, you would have done?
 

I had to Google. The son in question supports his father and has the same beliefs so it wouldn't have even become a question for him.