Mengele: Unmasking "The Angel of Death", Marwell - B

 Mengele has "emerged as the embodiment of not only the Holocaust itself but also the failure of justice in the wake of the war." He was born into a caring, upper middle class, Catholic home in 1911. He studied medicine, anthropology and genetics at university. He came under the sway of a professor focusing on racial differentiations. He then studied at the University Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. Josef Mengele received multiple degrees, and was a published scientist when he joined the NDSAP and SS in 1938. He married the following year. His first job in uniform was to select racially pure Germans among those seeking resettlement in recently acquired Polish lands.  He then spent two very difficult years on the eastern front as a doctor for a combat engineer's division. After a few months working on genetics in Berlin, he was off to Auschwitz in May, 1943, where he came into his own and prospered. Camp doctors had many responsibilities, including the infamous 'selection' process for the newly arrived. In his spare time, Mengele created his own institute for the study of certain cancers, eye color, twins, growth anomalies, and physical anomalies, and he provided specimens to the SS Medical Academy. He was obsessed with and studied gypsies. His infamous twin research was done in conjunction with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin. "Certain research required the simultaneous death and dissection of twins." Mengele shipped tissue samples, body parts and the eyes of twins to the Institute. His research was criminal and monstrous, but was part of the scientific establishment. His son, Rolf, was born in March, 1944 and he hoped that his wife and son would move to Auschwitz, but it never worked out. The camp was closed in January, 1945. He was in a Wehrmacht doctor's uniform at war's end, and when he surrendered to American forces. By August, he was released. With millions of prisoners and dwindling food supplies, the Allies were far from thorough. He would spend the next three years as a farmhand in Bavaria. His family spread the word that he was dead, no one knew otherwise, and he made his way in 1949 to Argentina. Argentina was sophisticated and safe.  His father's business in Germany helped him and allowed him to establish himself in Buenos Aires. In 1954, his wife divorced him. A year later, he visited Europe, saw old friends, and met with his brother's widow. Because she had inherited a piece of the business, Karl Mengele, for the strategic well-being of Mengele and Sons,  arranged a marriage between his son and his daughter-in-law. Things were going so well that Josef Mengele applied for and received a German passport in his own name. An anonymous tip in Germany led to an indictment and an extradition request, but by the time it reached Argentina, Mengele had relocated to Paraguay. After the Israelis captured Eichmann, he was on the run. His wife left for Europe and he moved to Brazil. One of the reasons Mengele could hide successfully for so long was his family's money. He received regular financial assistance from Germany. Little is known of his life in Brazil. Rolf visited him in 1977 and they discussed his role in the war but came to no conclusion. He was unrepentant to the end. He drowned on a Sao Palo beach in 1979.