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Josef Mengele

This is the man who is known to the world as the "Angel of Death" for his monstrous experiments that he carried out on Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau in the 1940s

• Josef Mengele's medical facility at Auschwitz was perhaps the most horrifying place the Holocaust produced.

Ask a survivor of Birkenau to name the most terrifying murderer during the Holocaust and they will tell you: JOSEF MENGELE

Who was this man and how did he burn his name into the darkest nightmare of modern history?

A Story of Josef Mengele

Josef Mengele was a popular and witty rich kid whose father ran a successful business in Germany at a time when the national economy was cratering.

Everybody at school seemed to like him and he got excellent grades. Upon graduating, he went to study at the University of Munich.

Mengele earned his first doctorate in anthropology from the University of Munich in 1935. He did his post-doctoral work at Frankfurt under Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, who was a fully indoctrinated Nazi eugenicist. National Socialism always held that individuals were the product of their heredity, and von Verschuer was one of the Nazi-aligned scientists whose work seemed to legitimize that assertion.

Von Verschuer’s work revolved around hereditary influences on congenital defects such as cleft palate. Mengele was an enthusiastic assistant to von Verschuer, and he left the lab in 1938 with both a glowing recommendation and a second doctorate in medicine. For his dissertation topic, Mengele wrote about racial influences on the formation of the lower jaw.

Josef Mengele had joined the Nazi Party in 1937, at the age of 26, while working under his mentor in Frankfurt. In 1938, he joined the SS and a reserve unit of the Wehrmacht. His unit was called up in 1940, and he seems to have served willingly, even volunteering for the Waffen-SS medical service.

Between the fall of France and the invasion of the Soviet Union, Mengele practiced eugenics in Poland by evaluating Polish nationals for potential “Germanization,” or race-based citizenship in the Reich.

In 1941, his unit was deployed to Ukraine in a combat role. Josef Mengele – the rich, popular kid and outstanding student – distinguished himself again at the front for bravery bordering on heroics. He was decorated several times, once for dragging wounded men out of a burning tank, and repeatedly commended for his dedication to service.

In January 1943, a German army surrendered at Stalingrad. That summer, another German army was eviscerated at Kursk. Between the two battles, during the meatgrinder offensive at Rostov, Mengele was severely wounded and rendered unfit for further action.

He was shipped back home to Germany, where he again connected with his old mentor von Verschuer and received a wound badge, a promotion to captain, and the assignment of a lifetime: In May 1943, Mengele reported for duty to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Auschwitz

Mengele was assigned as a medical officer at Auschwitz. 

Josef Mengele was an enthusiastic member of the staff who volunteered for extra duty, managed operations that were technically above his pay grade, and seemed to be almost everywhere at once. (This statement was reported by both the guards and survivors).

Josef Mengele was absolutely in his element in Auschwitz; his uniform was always pressed and neat, and he always seemed to have a faint smile on his face.

• “When he smiled you knew it meant danger, because when he was smiling that was when he was at his most sadistic,” said Wise (nee Weiss), an 80-year-old from pre-war Czechoslovakia who lived for two months in Mengele’s experimental barracks in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

Every doctor in his part of the camp was required to take a turn as the selection officer – dividing incoming shipments between those who were to work and those who were to be immediately gassed – and many found the work depressing. Josef Mengele adored it and he was always willing to take other doctors’ shifts on the arrival ramp.

In the normal course of his work, he managed an infirmary where the sick were executed, assisted other German doctors with their work, supervised inmate medical staff, and conducted his own research among the thousands of inmates he personally selected for the human experiment program he also started and managed.

The experiments he devised were ghoulish beyond belief. His prime interest was in Twins. Mengele continued the work he had started at Frankfurt by studying the influence of heredity on various physical traits.

Identical twins are useful for this kind of genetics research because they, of course, have identical genes. Any differences between them, therefore, must be the result of environmental factors. This makes sets of twins perfect for isolating genetic factors by comparing and contrasting their bodies and behavior.

Mengele assembled hundreds of pairs of twins and sometimes spent hours measuring various parts of their bodies and taking careful notes. 

Most of his subjects were children, and he would reportedly do blood transfusions from the one twin to the other, do amputations and try to sew it onto the other twin, stitch two twins together to form Siamese twins, infect one twin with typhus or another disease and many other experiments. 

When the test subject died, the child’s twin would be immediately killed with an injection of chloroform to the heart and both would be dissected for comparison. On one occasion, Josef Mengele killed 14 pairs of twins this way and spent a sleepless night performing autopsies on his victims.

Josef Mengele Experiments

The Mengele experiments were all done in secrecy but most of the information we have today is because of the accounts of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a prisoner-physician who was forced to assist Mengele. and from the Survivors of the Holocaust.

• When visiting his young subjects, he introduced himself as "Uncle Mengele" and offered them, sweets, while at the same time being personally responsible for the deaths of an unknown number of victims whom he killed via lethal injection, shootings, beatings, and his deadly experiments.

Genetic Experiments

The Nordic or Aryan Race was the most important goal of the Nazis. It was the largest part of the overall plan. The blonde hair, blue eye, supermen were to be the only race. The Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and anyone else that did not meet the race requirements were to be cleansed from society through genocide.

Josef Mengele's research on twins and Gypsies exemplifies the quest for genetic studies. The twins, dwarfs, and unique physical specimens were selected to be assigned to the experimental blocks. 

Experiments on Twins

The twins were examined from head to toe. Measurements of every inch were taken. Dr. Mengele demanded specific and careful exams. If any detail was missed the staff, usually a prisoner doctor would be punished. The twins were allowed to keep their hair for the first several days of the examination. After all the living data was taken the twins would be killed by a single injection of chloroform in the heart. Care was taken to ensure the twins died at the same time. The twins were then dissected with the organs being sent to research centers.

Mengele kept his exact reasoning for his experiments a secret. Many of the twins that he experimented on did not know the purpose of the experiments, or what exactly what was being injected into or otherwise done to them.

The experiments included:

• Measurements: The twins were forced to undress and lie next to each other. Then, every detail of their anatomy was carefully examined, studied, and measured. What was the same between the two was deemed to be hereditary, and what was different was deemed to be the result of the environment. These tests would last for several hours.
• Blood: The frequent blood tests and experiments included mass transfusions of blood from one twin to another.
• Eyes: In attempts to fabricate blue eye color, drops or injections of chemicals would be put in the eyes. This often caused severe pain, infections, and temporary or permanent blindness.
• Shots and Diseases: Mysterious injections caused severe pain. Injections into the spine and spinal taps were given with no anesthesia. Diseases, including typhus and tuberculosis, would be purposely given to one twin and not the other. When one died, the other was often killed to examine and compare the effects of the disease.
• Surgeries: Various surgeries were performed without anesthesia, including organ removal, castration, and amputation.
• Death: Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was Mengele's prisoner pathologist. The autopsies became the final experiment. Nyiszli performed autopsies on twins who had died from the experiments or who had been purposely killed just for after-death measurements and examination. Some of the twins had been stabbed with a needle that pierced their heart and was then injected with chloroform or phenol, which caused near-immediate blood coagulation and death. Some of the organs, eyes, blood samples and tissues would be sent to Verschuer for further study.

• The Fate Of The Hungarian Twins

Prisoner doctors tell of the fate of two Hungarian twins who arrived at Auschwitz late in 1943. Dr. Mengele was at the camp selection. The train arrived in the very early morning. Three sets of twins were found. They were taken to the experimental block. Dr. Mengele ordered the two Hungarian twins to be placed in the examination room. The two Hungarian twins young men age 18 were described as” extremely athletic and handsome.” They had much body hair and were allowed to keep it for the first few weeks. The twins were showered and returned nude to the examination room. The examination started at the head. All parts of their heads were examined. The head examination took almost days. They were then completely X-rayed. The next part of the examination consisted of tubes being forced through their noses and into their lungs. They were then ventilated with a gas which caused them to cough so severely they had to be restrained. The sputum from the lungs was collected for examination.

The twins were then photographed for several days. The purpose of the photographs was to show hair patterns. They were each forced to stand, bend, and kneel in many positions to accomplish the photographs. For example, they were required to stand with their arms lifted for many hours so the underarm hair could be photographed.

After the photographs were finished they were awoken very early in the morning. They were taken into a room with tables and a hot water vat. The water in the vat was very hot. They were made to sit in the water until they were ready to pass out from the heat. They were then strapped to a table where their hair was plucked out trying to save the hair root. They were put back into the hot vat several times. After enough hair was collected, they were totally shaven of every hair on their body. The twins were then again extensively photographed without hair.

The twins then received several two-liter enemas which caused them much pain and discomfort. The boys on different days were strapped over a bench table and their rectums were hyper descended after which they received an extensive lower gastric intestinal examination. This extensive procedure was performed without any anesthesia. The young men were crying so loud that Doctor Mengele ordered they be gagged. The next day they received a painful and humiliating urological examination. In this examination, tissue samples were taken from the kidneys, prostate, and testicles. Several semen samples were forcefully taken over two days.

After these three weeks of tortuous medical examinations, they were taken to the dissection laboratory. Using two doctors, each twin was simultaneously given an injection in the heart, taking their lives. They were dissected and their organs were sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research Berlin.

 

Unspeakable Horrors He Committed

• Mengele performed vivisection without anesthesia, removing hearts and stomachs of victims - told by Alex Dekel, a survivor.

• Mengele removed his kidney without anesthesia. He was then forced to return to work without painkillers - Yitzhak Ganon, a survivor gave this report in 2009.

• Mengele sewed two Romani twins together, back to back, in a crude attempt to create conjoined twins; both children died of gangrene after several days of suffering - Witness Vera Alexander.

In January 1945, the camp complex at Auschwitz was mostly dismantled and the starving prisoners were forced to perform the Death March. 

Before the Soviets arrived, Josef Mengele packed up his research notes and specimens, dropped them off with a trusted friend, and headed west to avoid capture by the Red Army. 

He and his unit then hurried west to avoid being captured by the Soviets, but were taken prisoners of war by the Americans in June 1945. Although Mengele was initially registered under his own name, he was not identified as being on the major war criminal list due to the disorganization of the Allies regarding the distribution of wanted lists, and the fact that he did not have the usual SS blood group tattoo. He was released at the end of July and obtained false papers under the name "Fritz Ullman", documents he later altered to read "Fritz Hollmann".

Josef Mengele Later Life

After several months on the run, including a trip back to the Soviet-occupied area to recover his Auschwitz records, Mengele found work near Rosenheim as a farmhand. He eventually escaped from Germany on 17 April 1949, convinced that his capture would mean a trial and death sentence. Assisted by a network of former SS members, he used the ratline to travel to Genoa, where he obtained a passport from the International Committee of the Red Cross under the alias "Helmut Gregor", and sailed to Argentina in July 1949.

Mengele worked as a carpenter in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After a few weeks he moved to the house of a Nazi sympathizer in the more affluent neighborhood of Florida Este. He next worked as a salesman for his family's farm equipment company, Karl Mengele & Sons, and in 1951 he began making frequent trips to Paraguay as regional sales representative. He moved into an apartment in central Buenos Aires in 1953, used family funds to buy a part interest in a carpentry concern, and then rented a house in the suburb of Olivos in 1954.

• Files released by the Argentine government in 1992 indicate that Mengele may have practiced medicine without a license while living in Buenos Aires, including performing abortions.

In 1969, Mengele and the Stammers jointly purchased a farmhouse in Caieiras, with Mengele as half owner. When Wolfgang Gerhard returned to Germany in 1971 to seek medical treatment for his ailing wife and son, he gave his identity card to Mengele. The Stammers' friendship with Mengele deteriorated in late 1974, and when they bought a house in São Paulo, Mengele was not invited to join them. The Stammers later bought a bungalow in the Eldorado neighborhood of São Paulo, which they rented out to Mengele. Rolf, who had not seen his father since the ski holiday in 1956, visited him at the bungalow in 1977; he found an unrepentant Nazi who claimed he had never personally harmed anyone and only carried out his duties as an officer.

Later life and death

Mengele's health had been steadily deteriorating since 1972. He suffered a stroke in 1976, experienced high blood pressure, and developed an ear infection which affected his balance. On 7 February 1979, while visiting his friends Wolfram and Liselotte Bossert in the coastal resort of Bertioga, Mengele suffered another stroke while swimming and drowned. His body was buried in Embu das Artes under the name "Wolfgang Gerhard", whose identification Mengele had been using since 1971.

On 31 May 1985, acting on intelligence received by the West German prosecutor's office, police raided the house of Hans Sedlmeier, a lifelong friend of Mengele and sales manager of the family firm in Günzburg. They found a coded address book and copies of letters sent to and received from Mengele. Among the papers was a letter from Wolfram Bossert notifying Sedlmeier of Mengele's death. 

German authorities alerted the police in São Paulo, who then contacted the Bosserts. Under interrogation, they revealed the location of Mengele's grave, and the remains were exhumed on 6 June 1985. An extensive forensic examination indicated with a high degree of probability that the body was indeed that of Josef Mengele. Rolf Mengele issued a statement on 10 June confirming that the body was his father's, and he admitted that the news of his father's death had been concealed in order to protect the people who had sheltered him for many years.

In 1992, DNA testing confirmed Mengele's identity beyond doubt, but family members refused repeated requests by Brazilian officials to repatriate the remains to Germany. The skeleton is stored at the São Paulo Institute for Forensic Medicine, where it is used as an educational aid during forensic medicine courses at the University of São Paulo's medical school.

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