The Boys from Brazil characters

Appears from the start

An aging Jewish Nazi hunter based in Vienna who has spent decades documenting fugitives and helping bring them to justice. Often short of money and deluged with doubtful tips, he is cautious about dramatic claims but persistent once evidence begins to connect them.

Appears from the start

A young American who follows suspected Nazis in South America and secretly monitors a meeting organized by Josef Mengele. He is earnest, frightened, and determined to get evidence to the better-known Nazi hunter Liebermann.

First appears in chapter 2

The fugitive Auschwitz doctor living in South America and directing a secret international operation. Fanatically committed to Nazi racial ideology, he assigns former SS men a precise list of ordinary victims and dates while concealing the larger purpose of the murders.

First appears in chapter 2

A senior member of the organization protecting Nazi fugitives in South America. More cautious than Mengele, Seibert treats the murder program as an operation whose political risks must be controlled rather than as a personal crusade.

First appears in chapter 4

Liebermann's devoted sister and housemate in Vienna. She helps sustain his underfunded work and provides practical support while he pursues the strange connection among murdered men in several countries.

First appears in chapter 10

A former concentration-camp guard living under a new identity in the United States. Liebermann seeks her out while tracing the concealed network that arranged unusual adoptions after the war.

First appears in chapter 19

A biologist whom Liebermann consults about the striking resemblance among photographs of boys raised in different countries. He explains how genetic copying could produce children with the same inherited traits while leaving upbringing to shape what they become.

First appears in chapter 21

A militant young Jewish activist who assists Liebermann but favors direct violence against surviving Nazis. Once the nature of Mengele's project is known, his readiness to treat the boys themselves as enemies creates a new moral danger.

First appears in chapter 27

An American civil servant and adoptive father whose age and family circumstances match those of the other men on Mengele's list. Liebermann travels to warn him when he realizes that the murder program is still continuing.

First appears in chapter 28

Henry Wheelock's adopted thirteen-year-old son, a sharp and self-absorbed boy with a keen interest in photography. His face resembles those of boys in other targeted households, making him central to the pattern Liebermann is trying to stop.