Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 in Gunzburg, Germany. He grew up into a promising and ambitious student, receiving his doctorate in medicine by Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer on hereditary deformities.
Despite his success, his academic career was interrupted by World War II where he served in the military. At first he was with the army mountain troops but was later upgraded to be the 5th SS Panzer in the “Viking” division. With the rank of SS-captain, he became a battalion surgeon, repeatedly being deceived as brave and noble person. When he was declared unfit for combat duty, he transferred to Auschwitz and Birkenau where he conducted atrocious medical experiments killing thousands of Jews in gas chambers. He held the position of “Health Director.” These experiments consisted of injections and other things causing agony to his patients. When the SS destroyed the gas chamber and crematoria in Auschwitz, Mengele gathered his research notes and disappeared. He was later ruled by a pro-German. There were many requests to extradite Mengele to West Germany because he was wanted for murder of 2,000 people and assistance in the killing of another 200,000. There was an international effort to apprehend him but he drowned before they could get a hold of him. During that time, the Federal Republic of Germany stopped anyone from being prosecuted for having aided Mengele through the five-year law of limitations. For the second half of his life he was treated as a political refugee instead of a ruthless man |
Mengele's Artwork from his diary
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article3099313.ece Mengele's diaries (artifact) https://www.picollecta.com/p/the-400-000-journals-of-the-angel-of-death-josef-mengele-1000509634 Crematorium (artifact)
http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blgusen3.htm |
"Josef Mengele." Encyclopedia of World Biography. (1998). U.S. History in Context. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.