Mengele

Josef Mengele (1911–1979) was a German physician and SS officer who became one of the most infamous figures of the Nazi regime due to his actions at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. He directed or conducted medical procedures and participated in the selection of prisoners for forced labor or execution, earning the nickname Angel of Death in popular discourse.

Mengele was born in Günzburg, Bavaria, and studied medicine and anthropology in Munich and Frankfurt. He joined the Nazi Party and the Schutzstaffel (SS) in the 1930s and was stationed at Auschwitz in 1943, where he oversaw or performed experiments described by survivors as cruel and pseudoscientific.

At Auschwitz he conducted medical experiments, especially on twins and people with physical abnormalities, and he was involved in the selection process at the camp's entrances. The procedures and selections are widely condemned as crimes against humanity and are central to the historical memory of the Holocaust.

After the war, Mengele fled Europe to South America, evading capture for decades by using false identities and moving among Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. He died in 1979 in Brazil, reportedly from a stroke while swimming in the sea near Bertioga. His remains were exhumed and identified in 1985 through dental records and later corroborated by other methods.

Mengele's legacy endures as a symbol of medical complicity in Nazi atrocities and the broader spectrum of human rights abuses in the Holocaust. His case continues to shape discussions of medical ethics, human experimentation, and postwar justice.