EARLY LIFE
Josef Mengele was born in Gunzburg in 1911 as the eldest son of Karl Mengele, a prosperous manufacturer of farming implements. He earned doctorates in anthropology and medicine from Munich University in 1935. In January of 1937, Mengele became the assistant of Dr. Otmar von Verschuer, a researcher at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt. As a leading scientific figure in the field, his research involving twins was popular among scholars.
NAZI LIFE
In 1937 Mengele joined the Nazi Party and later joined the SS in 1938. In June of 1940, he was drafted into the army. As a result, he volunteered into the medical service of the Waffen-SS, also known as the Armed SS. At first, Mengele worked as a medical expert for the Race and Settlement Main Office at the Central Immigration Office. However, while on this assignment he was wounded and was returned to Germany in January of 1943 and began work at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics. This organization was directed by his former mentor, von Verschuer. It was while working this position that Mengele was promoted to SS captain.
PHYSICIAN WORK
Against popular opinion, Mengele was not the only physician at Auschwitz, nor was he the highest-ranking physician. He began at Auschwitz as the medical officer responsible for Birkenau's "Gypsy camp." However, in November of 1943, Mengele entered a new position as the chief camp physician of Auschwitz II. A common duty involved in the medical staff's "rounds" included the "selections" of prisoners on the ramp. This involved determining out of the populations arriving at Auschwitz who meets the criteria for a working group and who would be deemed unfit and sent to the gas chambers. Mengele was known as the "Angel of Death" or even the "White Angel" due to his cold and cruel demeanor during this task. According to sources, in history, Mengele is most commonly associated with the "selection duty" than any other medical officer. He even spent his off-duty time at the ramp in order to search for adequate twins for his experiments.
MEDICAL RESEARCH
During the 1930s, twin research was seen as a valuable and necessary tool in weighing the factors that contribute to human heredity and environment. Before his time at Auschwitz, Mengele performed legitimate research using twins as subjects. Once he became an officer at the camp, Mengele was given full license to mutilate or kill his subjects. With this he performed a broad range of excruciating and often lethal experiments with Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) twins, most of them being children. A goal of this twin research was to "prove the supremacy of heredity over environment and thus bolster the Nazi premise of the superiority of the Aryan race." Another reason for the Mengele experiments was for "the desire to improve the reproduction rate of the German race by improving the chances of racially desirable people having twins." The twin experiments included unnecessary amputations of limbs, intentionally infecting one twin with typhus or other diseases, and transfering the blood of one twin into the other. Other research interests of Mengele include
Mengele's experimental work endorsed the doctrine of National Socialist Racial Theory. This doctrine performed experiments to shed light on the idea that Jews or Roma show more resistance to various diseases. It also "attempted to demonstrate the 'degeneration' of Jewish and Gypsy blood through the documentation of physical oddities and the collection and harvesting of tissue samples and body parts." In the end Mengele and other physicians, in the efforts to follow this doctrine, killed many people in the experimental process and murdered others in order to perform post-mortem examinations. It is important to note that individuals who knew Mengele and witnessed his practices stated that his research subjects (in particular, twins) were better fed and housed than other prisoners and they were temporarily safe from the immediate danger of the gas chamber. However, Mengele was personally responsible for the deaths of an uncertain number of victims, killed via lethal injection, shootings, beatings, and through selections and deadly experiments.
POSTWAR LIFE
In January of 1945, Mengele fled Auschwitz. He, along with many other physicians and officers, spent the next few weeks at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, until it too was evacuated. Immediately after the ending of the war, Mengele was entered into United States custody, but unaware that he was a wanted criminal, he was release. After working as a farmhand for a few years, he settled in Argentina. In 1959, West Germany issued a formal arrest warrant for Mengele. In the last years of his life, Mengele lived in Brazil. With deteriorating health, he suffered a stroke while swimming at a vacation resort and died of drowning on February 7, 1979. He has eluded his captors for 34 years.
Josef Mengele was born in Gunzburg in 1911 as the eldest son of Karl Mengele, a prosperous manufacturer of farming implements. He earned doctorates in anthropology and medicine from Munich University in 1935. In January of 1937, Mengele became the assistant of Dr. Otmar von Verschuer, a researcher at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt. As a leading scientific figure in the field, his research involving twins was popular among scholars.
NAZI LIFE
In 1937 Mengele joined the Nazi Party and later joined the SS in 1938. In June of 1940, he was drafted into the army. As a result, he volunteered into the medical service of the Waffen-SS, also known as the Armed SS. At first, Mengele worked as a medical expert for the Race and Settlement Main Office at the Central Immigration Office. However, while on this assignment he was wounded and was returned to Germany in January of 1943 and began work at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics. This organization was directed by his former mentor, von Verschuer. It was while working this position that Mengele was promoted to SS captain.
PHYSICIAN WORK
Against popular opinion, Mengele was not the only physician at Auschwitz, nor was he the highest-ranking physician. He began at Auschwitz as the medical officer responsible for Birkenau's "Gypsy camp." However, in November of 1943, Mengele entered a new position as the chief camp physician of Auschwitz II. A common duty involved in the medical staff's "rounds" included the "selections" of prisoners on the ramp. This involved determining out of the populations arriving at Auschwitz who meets the criteria for a working group and who would be deemed unfit and sent to the gas chambers. Mengele was known as the "Angel of Death" or even the "White Angel" due to his cold and cruel demeanor during this task. According to sources, in history, Mengele is most commonly associated with the "selection duty" than any other medical officer. He even spent his off-duty time at the ramp in order to search for adequate twins for his experiments.
MEDICAL RESEARCH
During the 1930s, twin research was seen as a valuable and necessary tool in weighing the factors that contribute to human heredity and environment. Before his time at Auschwitz, Mengele performed legitimate research using twins as subjects. Once he became an officer at the camp, Mengele was given full license to mutilate or kill his subjects. With this he performed a broad range of excruciating and often lethal experiments with Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) twins, most of them being children. A goal of this twin research was to "prove the supremacy of heredity over environment and thus bolster the Nazi premise of the superiority of the Aryan race." Another reason for the Mengele experiments was for "the desire to improve the reproduction rate of the German race by improving the chances of racially desirable people having twins." The twin experiments included unnecessary amputations of limbs, intentionally infecting one twin with typhus or other diseases, and transfering the blood of one twin into the other. Other research interests of Mengele include
- Heterochromia: This is a condition in which an individual's two irises differ in color. At Auschwitz, Mengele collected the eyes of his murdered victims. This was in an attempt to artificially change eye color.
- Noma: This is a type of gangrene which destroys the mucous membrane of the mouth and other tissues.
- Dwarfism
- People with physical abnormalities
Mengele's experimental work endorsed the doctrine of National Socialist Racial Theory. This doctrine performed experiments to shed light on the idea that Jews or Roma show more resistance to various diseases. It also "attempted to demonstrate the 'degeneration' of Jewish and Gypsy blood through the documentation of physical oddities and the collection and harvesting of tissue samples and body parts." In the end Mengele and other physicians, in the efforts to follow this doctrine, killed many people in the experimental process and murdered others in order to perform post-mortem examinations. It is important to note that individuals who knew Mengele and witnessed his practices stated that his research subjects (in particular, twins) were better fed and housed than other prisoners and they were temporarily safe from the immediate danger of the gas chamber. However, Mengele was personally responsible for the deaths of an uncertain number of victims, killed via lethal injection, shootings, beatings, and through selections and deadly experiments.
POSTWAR LIFE
In January of 1945, Mengele fled Auschwitz. He, along with many other physicians and officers, spent the next few weeks at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, until it too was evacuated. Immediately after the ending of the war, Mengele was entered into United States custody, but unaware that he was a wanted criminal, he was release. After working as a farmhand for a few years, he settled in Argentina. In 1959, West Germany issued a formal arrest warrant for Mengele. In the last years of his life, Mengele lived in Brazil. With deteriorating health, he suffered a stroke while swimming at a vacation resort and died of drowning on February 7, 1979. He has eluded his captors for 34 years.