Joseph Mengele
Joseph Mengele was a latecomer to the Nazi party, not joining until Hitler had been in control of Germany for four years. While others had been jockeying for a position within Hitler’s new Third Reich, Mengele had been in university, studying medicine and then completing a Ph.D. in anthropology. During his studies he developed a keen interest in investigating the effects of genetics by studying twins. When the war began, he went off to fight as a medical officer in the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the notorious SS organization. In 1942 he was seriously wounded in battle in the Soviet Union and returned to Germany.
Though no longer able to fight, Mengele elected to find another way to contribute to the Nazi cause, applying for a position in the concentration camps in 1943. His application was accepted, and he took an appointment as a medical officer in the Auschwitz concentration camp. One of his duties in this position was to conduct “selections” of Jewish deportees arriving at the camp from occupied Europe. Selections were the first experience of Auschwitz for most Jews, occurring right on the rail platform.
New arrivals were formed into lines, and they would pass by a camp doctor – often Mengele – who in a few seconds would decide whether they could be used for labor or if they should be murdered immediately. Mengele relished conducting selections, and even volunteered to participate when it was not required of him because they gave him the opportunity to single out sets of twins. He would use those twins that he acquired in medical experiments within the camp.
As the Soviets closed in on Auschwitz Mengele fled to the west, and he would be captured by American forces the month after the war ended. Even though the Americans had his real name, no one uncovered his connection to Auschwitz and he was released the next month. For several years he would work on a farm under a false identity, before connecting with the Rome “Ratline” and escaping to Buenos Aires in 1949. In the coming years he became comfortable enough that he had escaped detection that he brazenly began using his real name once again, and even took a vacation back in Europe.
Nazi hunters were soon onto him, and when Mossad was in Buenos Aires to capture Eichmann they considered grabbing Mengele as well but did not want to jeopardize their primary mission. Feeling the heat, Mengele went back into hiding under an assumed name in Brazil. Thereafter the Nazi hunters’ lead went cold and they never found him again. He lived out the remaining nineteen years of his life in Brazil.