Josef Mengele
(March 15, 1911 - February 7, 1979?)
Early Life
- Born March 16, 1911 in Günzburg, Germany
- Parents were Karl (1881-1959) and Walburga (d. 1946) Mengele
- Two younger brothers: Karl (1912-1949) and Alois (1914-1974)
- Nickname was "Beppo"
- 1926 diagnosed with osteomyelitis
Education and beginning of WWII
- 1930 graduated from the Gymnasium
- March 1931 joined the Steel Helmuts (Stahlhelm)
- January 1934 SA absorbsed Stahlhelm
- October 1934 left SA because of kidney trouble
- 1935 awarded PhD from the University of Munich
- January 1, 1937 appointed a research assistant at the Third Reich Institute for Heredity, Biology, and Racial Purity at the University of Frankfurt; worked with Professor Otmar Freiherr von Vershuer
- May 1937 joined the NSDAP (member #5574974)
- May 1938 admitted to the SS
- July 1938 awarded medical degree by University of Frankfurt
- October 1938 began basic training with the Wehrmacht (lasted three months)
- July 1939 married Irene Schoenbein
- June 1940 joined the medical corps (Sanitätsinspektion) of the Waffen SS
- August 1940 appointed an Untersturmführer
- Attached to Genealogical Section of the Race and Resettlement Office in occupied Poland
- June 1941, sent to the Ukraine as part of the Waffen SS; received the Iron Cross, Second Class
- January 1942 joined the Waffen SS's Viking Division medical corps; earned the Iron Cross, First Class by pulling two soldiers out of a burning tank while under enemy fire; also awarded the Black Badge for the Wounded and the Medal for the Care of the German People; wounded
- End of 1942 reposted to the Race and Resettlement Office, this time in its headquarters in Berlin
- appointed to Haupsturmführer (captain)
Auschwitz
- May 30, 1943 arrived at Auschwitz
- Conducted medical experiments on twins, dwarfs, giants, and many others
- Seemingly constant presence and participation in the selections at the ramp
- Responsible for selections in the women's camp
- called "Angele of Death"
- March 11, 1944 his son, Rolf, was born
- Sometime middle of January 1945, he fled Auschwitz
On the Run
- Arrived at Gross-Rosen camp; then left before Russians liberated it on February 11, 1945
- Spotted at Mauthausen
- Captured as prisoner of war and held in a POW camp near Munich
- Received papers from fellow prisoner, Dr. Fritz Ulmann; for vanity reasons had not gotten blood type tattooed beneath arm, American Army did not realize he was a member of the SS and released him
- Aliases include: Fritz Ulmann, Fritz Hollmann, Helmut Gregor, G. Helmuth, Jose Mengele, Ludwig Gregor, Wolfgang Gerhard
- Remained on George Fischer's farm for three years
- 1949 escaped to Argentina
- 1954 his father came to visit him
- 1954 divorced from Irene
- 1956 had his name officially changed to Josef Mengele
- 1958 married his brother, Karl's, widow - Martha Mengele
- June 7, 1959 West Germany issued its first arrest warrant for Mengele
- 1959 moved to Paraguay
- 1964 the Universities of Frankfurt and Munich withdrew his academic degrees
- Assumed that his remains were buried in Embu, Brazil in a grave marked "Wolfgang Gerhard"
- Believed to have died on February 7, 1979 on the beach at Bertioga in Embu, Brazil while suffering a stroke while swimming in the ocean.
- February 1985 a public trial, in absentia, was held at Yad Vashem
- In June 1985, the body in the grave was exhumed for forensic identification.
