Dr.

Josef
Mengele:
Notoriety and
Experimentation
By Anthony Haynes

Who was Dr. Mengele?

Dr. Josef Mengele was an SS
physician who officiated and
served at Auschwitz
He acted as the poster
child of Nazi cruelty and
callous brutality
He was credited with
committing atrocious
experiments upon inmates
Revered as the Angel of
Death or the White
Angel

Early Life and

Inspiration
Josef Mengele was born on March 16,
1911 in the city of Gnzburg,
Germany
In the year of 1935 he attended the
University of Munich
During this time he earned a
doctorates in physical anthropology
In 1937 he continued his education at
the University of Frankfurt where he
studied under Dr. Otmar von
Verschuer

Early Life and

Inspirations (Continued)
After prolonged collaboration with
Dr. Otmar von Verschuer, Dr.
Mengele developed a keen
interest in genetics
Thus through the influence of
his mentor his fascination with
twins was born
If he could master the secret
to twins he could be a paragon
of Nazi history
Mengele inevitably joined the
Nazi party in 1937 then the SS

Military Service
and Auschwitz

During the month of June 1940 Mengele

was drafted into the Wehrmacht

In the spring of 1943 he

was issued a promotion in
rank to that of SS Captain
This was shortly prior to
his relocation to
Auschwitz, beginning
his infamous tenure

In Auschwitz he served as a
physician under Dr. Eduard
Soon afterwards he voluntarily employed his
skills in the medical branch of the SS.
Wirths
Through the time period of 1940-1943 he
Mengele was one
was a medical expert in the Race and
among 30 Nazi
Settlement office then experienced
physicians assigned
combat as a medical officer with an SS
there
division

During his campaign on the Eastern front he was

wounded and sent back to Germany

After his relief of active duty in 1942 he

pursued research at the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute under supervision of Dr. Otmar
von Verschuer

Military Service and

Auschwitz: Duties
As an Angel of Death Mengeles
rounds included the role of selection
at the ramp
Mengele is noted among the most
cold and dark physicians to perform
this duty, taking joy in playing God
Mengele is recorded to have sent
nearly 400,000 people to immediate
death

Besides this he held jurisdiction as

chief camp physician of Auschwitz II
(Birkenau)

Auschwitz:
Experimentation
and genetics
This portion of Dr. Mengeles
research work is the most
notorious and carries the worst
connotation
Mengele would perform his
rounds while scouting for twins
on the ramp
Acted as an unbarred continuation
of past experiments in genetics
The main appeal was the search
for the secrets of fertility

Twins

Auschwitz:
Experimentation
and genetics
Mengele claimed nearly 3000 twins
on the ramps, but only 200 are to
have lived
Interestingly enough, the twins
were treated much better than
other inmates
Some of the children even
regarded to the Angel of Death
as Uncle Mengele
The twins lived in superb
conditions compared to other
inmates

Twins

Auschwitz:
Experimentation
and genetics
Mengeles actual procedures
included detailed and tedious
analysiss daily
Blood was to be drawn every day
for tests of various experiments
Surgeries were performed to
contrast the similarities and
differences
Each twin was used and of
interest in a unique fashion

The final examination was done

after death, for in-depth

Twins

Auschwitz:
Experimentation
Heterochromia
Heterochromia is difference of
color in the iris of each eye, or
variation in one eye in several
areas
Mengele took an interest in this
so as to refine Aryan qualities
and traits
Inmates, including twins,
received ocular injections and
drops of chemicals
These chemicals could lead to

Auschwitz:
Experimentation

Racial
superiority-disease resistance

Mengele attempted to prove racial

superiority and inferiority through
introduction to various diseases
One twin was injected with a
terrible disease while the other
was kept as a constant
Other inmates that may not
particularly Jewish were also
tested
Shots and injections with viral
concoctions were given to inmates to
test pain tolerance

Notoriety:
Exodus from Germany
With the end of the war and
Germanys loss, Mengele needed
to take defensive measures
Initially he assumed the role
of a plain German officer
named Fritz Hollman
He then proceeded to hide
near Munich
After 3 years time he was
reached by Argentinian contacts
who smoothed the way for his
departure

Notoriety:
Life in Argentina
After arriving in 1949 Mengele
then became one of many Nazi
refugees in Argentina for near a
decade
He lived under the guise Helmut
Gregor
He found employment at Orbis
and continued his doctoring
career separately
Due to his fathers richness and
societal standing Mengele
himself enjoyed life with the elite

Notoriety:
Culmination
With the exception of only Adolf Eichmann,
Mengele had become the most wanted Nazi
war criminal having yet evaded capture
After Perons overruling and Eichmanns
capture Mengele fled to obscurity
He then lived the rest of his life as such and
ultimately drowned while having a stroke

The fundamental building block of Josef

Mengeles notoriety is his eternal reverence
as the one who got away from the legions
of Nazi hunters

Notoriety:
Victim Accounts
The last major accord that attributed to
Mengeles nefarious reputation was the
personal accounts of victims and
witnesses
Mengele was the particular SS physician
who left the biggest mark on the
collective memory of inmates
He was often said to appear at the ramps
even off-duty to observe the selections
and search for abnormalities
Alongside with his icy demeanor, this
immortalized him as one of Nazi
Germanys most vile vanguards

Bibliography
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?Mod
uleId=
10007060
http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/theh
istoryofargentina/p/Josef-Mengele-Nazi-WarCriminal.htm
http://isurvived.org/drMengele.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
jRS_BoXq6ms