At dawn on May 8, 80 years after the victory over Nazism, memories turn to the darkest figures of the Holocaust. When we talk about the horror of the camps, one name stands out: Josef Mengele.
Josef Mengele, born March 16, 1911 in Bavaria, is one of the names the most terrifying of World War II. A doctor and SS officer, he acquired the sordid reputation of “the Angel of Death” because of his role at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Where he selected prisoners upon their arrival and conducted medical experiments inhumane, especially on twins.
Scientific training in the service of Nazi ideology
Before joining Auschwitz, Josef Mengele completed advanced studies in medicine and physical anthropology at the university of Munich. He turned very early towards “racial biology”: from the 1930she works at the Institute of Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene, under the direction of geneticist Otmar von Verschuerwho strongly influenced him in his research on twins. He adheres to Nazi ideology, joined the SS and rose through the ranks to the rank of Hauptsturmführer (captain).
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In Auschwitz-Birkenau: murderous selections and “experiments”
He was assigned to Auschwitz in 1943, more precisely at Birkenau, the extermination camp. There, he takes part in the selections. As soon as the convoys arrive, he decides who will go to work and who will be sent directly to the gas chambers. But Josef Mengele does not just play this role. He also conducts experiments pseudo-scientists of extreme cruelty, especially on the twins.
His obsession: racial genetics and “purity“Aryan. He injects, dissects, tests chemicals, often without anesthesiakilling many guinea pigs. It also exercises a form of “selection to the infirmary”. Patients are also forced to parade naked and brutally examined, as some testimonies have reported. Some survivors speak of its legendary terrorits “cold malice”: he approached, observed, decided and left.
Josef Mengele: The ordeal of the twins
Among his victims, the twins occupy a particularly central place. Josef Mengele saw in them the key to understanding heredityof “Aryan gene“The experiments were systematic: injections, samples, sometimes operations. Many of these children will not survive ; those who remain suffer lifelong consequences. Survivors testified at a rally in Jerusalem: “May he only be condemned to listen to our sobs day and night!” they declared (Le Monde).
Fleeing and running away: a predator on the loose
When the Red Army approached in January 1945, Josef Mengele leaves Auschwitzwith other members of the SS. After the war, he hid in Germany, worked under false identities, then fled to South America in 1949. He will live in Argentina in Paraguay then in Brazil, helped by Nazi networks and sympathizers. He was never tried.
For decades, services like Mossad tried to capture him. A secret filereveals that they considered daring operations: espionage, wiretapping, targeted seductions, etc. without success.
The death of Josef Mengele, without justice
Josef Mengele died on February 7, 1979 in São Paulo, Brazil, of a stroke while swimming. His body was exhumed in 1985, and forensic analyzes then DNAallowed his identity to be confirmed. Although for years he had lived under a pseudonym.
Why is his name forever linked to horror?
Josef Mengele therefore embodies a particularly chilling facet of Nazism: that of perverted science, put at the service of a racist and murderous ideology. His experiments had no not intended to heal or help: they were a means of torture, selection, elimination. In this it symbolizes the extreme danger when scientific research no longer has ethical limits. The fact that he escaped justice adds additional weight to his figure. It remains an example of an unpunished crime, the shadow of which still hangs over the memory of the Shoah today.
