German Death Camps

Josef Mengele - Angel of Death from Auschwitz

Ostatnia aktualizacja: 17.08.2017 13:00
Josef Mengele, 1956
Josef Mengele, 1956Foto: Wikipedia/domena publiczna

1911–1979. German physician, Doctor of Medicine and Anthropology. In 1937, he joined the NSDAP, and a year later he was admitted to the SS.

From 1943, he was a physician in the German Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. At the camp, he carried out cruel pseudo-medical experiments: amputations, lumbar punctures, typhus injections, deliberate infecting of wounds, and many others. His victims were often twins, whom he killed only to compare the condition of their internal organs. Always impeccably dressed in a white doctor’s gown and white gloves, Mengele became known as "the Angel of Death" among Auschwitz prisoners.

He escaped from Auschwitz ten days before the arrival of the Russians. After the end of World War II, he managed to escape to South America. Initially, he lived in Argentina, then, from 1962, in Brazil. He was never brought before a court despite the fact that a bounty of 10 million marks was promised for help in capturing him. He died on 7 February 1979 near Sao Paulo. He had a stroke while swimming in the sea and drowned.