Josef Mengele (1911-1979) - German doctor who conducted medical experiments on prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War (1939-1945).
For conducting experiments, he personally selected prisoners. Tens of thousands of people became victims of monstrous experiments.
After the war, Mengele fled to Latin America, fearing persecution. Attempts to find him and bring him to trial for the crimes committed were unsuccessful. The world is known under the nickname "Angel of Death from Auschwitz"(As the prisoners called him).
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Mengele, which we will talk about in this article.
So, here is a short biography of Joseph Mengele.
Biography of Mengele
Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 in the Bavarian city of Günzburg. He grew up and was brought up in a wealthy family.
His father, Karl Mengele, was the owner of the Karl Mengele & Sons company, which manufactured agricultural equipment. Mother, Walburga Happaue, was raising three sons, among whom Joseph was the eldest.
Childhood and youth
Josef Mengele studied well in school and also showed interest in music, art and skiing. After graduating from it, he became interested in Nazi ideology. On the advice of his father, he went to Munich, where he entered the university in the department of philosophy.
In 1932, Mengele joined the Steel Helmet organization, which later reunited with the Nazi stormtroopers (SA). However, he had to quit the Steel Helmet due to health problems.
After that, Josef studied medicine and anthropology at universities in Germany and Austria. At the age of 24, he authored his doctoral dissertation on "Racial differences in mandibular structure." After 3 years he was awarded a doctorate.
Shortly before that, Mengele worked at the Research Institute of Hereditary Biology, Physiology and Human Hygiene. He deeply researched the genetics and anomalies of twins, starting to make the first advances in science.
Medicine and crime
In 1938, a significant event took place in the biography of Joseph Mengele, associated with his entry into the Nazi party, the NSDAP. After a couple of years, he joined the medical forces. He served in the engineer battalion of the Viking division, which was subordinate to the Waffen-SS.
Later, Mengele managed to save two tankers from a burning tank. For this feat, he was awarded the title of SS Hauptsturmführer and the "Iron Cross" 1st degree. In 1942 he was seriously wounded, which did not allow him to continue his service.
As a result, Joseph was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he began to fully implement the monstrous experiments. Babies, whom he dissected alive, were often his test subjects. It is worth noting that he often operated on adolescents and adult prisoners without anesthesia.
For example, Mengele castrated males without using any painkillers.
In turn, the girls were sterilized by means of radioactive radiation. There are cases when prisoners were beaten with high voltage electric current for several days.
The leadership of the Third Reich provided the Angel of Death with everything needed for his inhuman experiences. Josef Mengele was involved in the infamous Gemini project, during which German doctors sought to create a superman.
And yet, Mengele showed particular interest in the twins who were brought to the camp. According to experts, 900-3000 children passed through his hands, of which only about 300 managed to survive. Thus, he tried to create Siamese twins by stitching together gypsy twins.
The children suffered hellish pain, but this did not stop Joseph at all. All that interested him was simply to achieve his goal by any means. Among the Nazi's experiments were attempts to change the color of a child's eyes by injecting various chemicals.
Those children who survived the experiments were soon killed. Mengele's victims were tens of thousands of prisoners. The doctor has been involved in the development of liver cell-based drugs to help pilots stay focused during air battles.
In August 1944, part of Auschwitz was closed, and all the prisoners were killed in the gas chambers. After that, Josef was assigned to work as the head physician of Birkenau (one of the inner camps of Auschwitz), and then in the Gross-Rosen camp.
Shortly before the surrender of Germany, Mengele, disguised as a soldier, fled west. He was detained, but later released, as no one was able to establish his identity. For a long time he hid in Bavaria, and in 1949 fled to Argentina.
In this country, Mengele was engaged in illegal medical practice for several years, including abortion. In 1958, after the death of one patient, he was brought to trial, but eventually released.
The Angel of Death was sought all over the world, using enormous resources for this. However, the secret services did not manage to find the bloody doctor. It is known that in his old age, Mengele did not feel any regret for what he did.
Personal life
When Joseph was 28 years old, he married Irene Schönbein. In this marriage, the couple had a boy, Rolf. During the war, the man had a close relationship with the warden Irma Grese, who was no less bloodthirsty.
In the mid-50s, Mengele, who was hiding abroad, changed his name to Helmut Gregor and broke up with his official wife. he married his brother's widow Karl Martha, who had a son.
Death
The last years of his life, the Nazi lived in Brazil, still hiding from persecution. Josef Mengele died on February 7, 1979 at the age of 67. Death overtook him while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, when he had a stroke.
The grave of the Angel of Death was discovered in 1985, and experts were able to prove the authenticity of the remains only after 7 years. An interesting fact is that since 2016, Mengele's remains have been used as teaching material at the medical department of the University of São Paulo.
Mengele Photos
