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Mengele, Josef   Cerca

Nota d'ambito

Use when survivors speak of their experiences with this individual. (en-US)

Definizione

Josef Mengele was born either March 16 or May 16, 1911, in Gunzburg, Bavaria, Germany. He received both a Ph.D. and an M.D. He joined the SA in 1934, applied for membership in the Nazi party in 1937, and became a member of the SS in 1938. He served in a medical capacity in the German military and rose to the rank of captain. Wounded in action in 1943, Mengele was removed from front-line service in the German military and was offered a choice of posts. He selected Auschwitz for its research possibilities and arrived in the camp on May 30, 1943. Mengele played a central role in the selection process at Auschwitz. In Auschwitz II-Birkenau, he was the head physician of a Sinti and Roma ("Gypsy") family camp, then head of the hospital for male prisoners, and eventually in charge of the SS infirmary. He performed medical experiments on twins and dwarves in an attempt to identify a means to increase the Aryan birth rate and to test his theories for improving the genetics of the Aryan race. He oversaw a staff of 60 doctors and 300 nurses at Birkenau. Mengele was also one of a few SS physicians who supervised the gassing of new arrivals in the gas chambers. On January 17 or 18, 1945, Mengele slipped out of Auschwitz to escape the approaching Soviet forces. He eventually made his way back to Germany, where United States forces captured him. He escaped from a prison camp and, using a false name and a network of friends, family, and sympathetic officials within the Catholic Church, fled to Argentina. He lived in Argentina, initially under a false name, then in Paraguay and in Brazil, where he died on January 24, 1979. (en-US)

Fonte

Friedrich, Otto The Kingdom of Auschwitz. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994. p. 21, 24, 56-57

Termini più generici

• Personale tedesco di NSDAP/SS/DS