Josef Mengele, la traque d’un criminel nazi

Josef Mengele 1911-1979. Mengele : ce nom encore aujourd’hui inspire l’horreur et la haine. L’homme fut recherché pendant 34 ans. En vain… 1945, l’Allemagne capitule après la prise de Berlin par les forces alliées. Une liste impressionnante de dignitaires du régime nazi et autres tortionnaires circule dans tous les services de renseignements et de polices du monde. Quelques années plus tôt… En avril 1941, Josef Mengele, membre de la Waffen.SS, après avoir été blessé sur le front de l’Est, est promu au grade de Haupsturmfürher et reçoit quatre décorations dont la croix de fer tant convoitée avant d’être affecté comme médecin militaire au camp de concentration d’Auschwitz. Durant les 21 mois qu’il passa à Auschwitz le docteur Mengele acquit sa réputation et son surnom de “l’ange de la mort”.

Histoire, Criminalité, Nazisme, Portrait

Réaalisateur : Emmanuel Amara

Doctor Josef Mengele is the symbol itself, of the Nazi Holocaust. He is the embodiment of evil. When he fled, he didn’t know he was wanted, but he knew enough to understand that Auschwitz, had been the greatest of all the extermination camps. He took a leak which was effective. It represents Cain,

The criminal who flees to the end of the world and we can’t catch up. What really worried Mengele, it was the kidnapping by the Mossad from another Nazi, Adolf Eichmann. He should have been arrested, he should have been tried. But things didn’t work out didn’t happen like that. German justice, for several decades,

Was very lenient. Josef Mengele is born March 16, 1911 in Günzburg, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, in what is then the German Empire. He is the eldest son of Karl’s 3 children and Walburga Mengele. From birth he is a young man very privileged.

He was born in a town where his family is one of the most respected. Their business dominated the city. She dominated the economy and, in many ways, cultural and social life. His father is the founder and owner, of a thriving business agricultural machinery. Mengele’s name is synonymous social success, throughout Bavaria.

A notoriety which earned him the visit of Adolf Hitler, in the family factory in Gunzburg. This largely guarantees its future. But don’t want to follow the example family in agriculture. He wants to become a doctor. And of course, we encourage it. It’s a respectable profession. Mengele is a studious student.

He is passionate about music, art and skiing. At the end of his secondary studies, in April 1930, he joined the University of Munich, to study medicine. Munich is then the center of the party Nazi led by Adolf Hitler. In 1931, Josef Mengele, joins the organization far-right paramilitary, Steel Helmets,

Which became the SA in 1934, the Nazi Assault Section. Nazi medicine and ideology, shape their vision of the world. He learns medicine by the yardstick of this racial pseudo-science, which affirms that there exists a superior race, that there are inferior races. His doctoral thesis focuses on anthropological differences, between racial subtypes.

If people like Mengele were able to prosper, it’s not just because Hitler is behind them as support, but because in the medical field, the intellectual elite, taught students like Mengele, that a new science is being born, eugenics, racial science. And he grew up with it. In 1935, Mengele obtained his doctorate in anthropology,

At the University of Munich. He is particularly interested in the factors responsible genetics, of the chin dimple. His thesis on the subject earned him a doctorate, with congratulations of the medical jury. 1937 is a fundamental turning point, in the life of Josef Mengele. In January, he became the assistant,

Of Dr. Otmar von Verschuer, the leader of Nazi racial medicine. Ambitious and determined to rise in rank, within the establishment Nazi scientist, Mengele also joined the SS. A man like Mengele, quite well off, clever, gifted student and who now became a doctor, when looking at the organization Nazi military, quite naturally,

He considered joining the SS. He’s an elite within the elite. The SS goes back six generations backward, to ensure that we come of pure German lineage. There is a genetic marker, so much so that if you join this elite, Himmler’s SS, you received a tattoo under your arm.

It meant that you had passed the test, that you were of pure blood. Of course, Mengele decided not to get this blood type tattoo, because he was too vain for that. Barely married and a few months after the start of the Second World War, the doctor is sent to Posen, in eastern Germany,

Within the office for the race and the population. This Nazi organization is responsible to control the purity, ideological and racial of all members of the SS. Mengele evaluated individuals. It was a kind of inventory physical characteristics. The shape and color of the eyes, hair colour, the shape of the nose,

The type of chin, the height of the forehead. And all this was supposed to give clues to racial origin and then racial purity. He did this for quite a long time and I think it’s important because that makes it a kind, kingpin of this racial bureaucracy. In June 1941, Nazi Germany launched

His invasion of the Soviet Union. Mengele, like thousands of doctors, is also sent to the front. He is assigned to Ukraine, near Stalingrad. For his bravery, Mengele receives the Iron Cross. Seriously injured in the summer of 1942, he is sent back with the rank of captain. Josef Mengele is transferred to Berlin,

At the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute with his mentor, Doctor Verschuer. At the beginning of 1943, the latter encourages Mengele to ask, his transfer to Auschwitz, where he will be able to continue his research, on human subjects and build his sinister reputation. For the greatest number, those found there, were real sadists.

One of the traits of human nature. They delighted in it. And there was also a small group, men like Mengele, who saw it as a unique opportunity, to advance the cause of what they considered a racial science. The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, associates a concentration camp and an extermination camp.

The deportees, mainly Jews originating from all over Europe, arrive every day by train by the thousands. When they got off the train, they are sorted by SS doctors. Most arrivals are sent directly into the gas chambers. These are almost all children, pregnant women, the elderly and the sick.

The others are directed towards the concentration camp, where they die of exhaustion. It was during this sorting that Ruth Elias, several months pregnant, meets Mengele for the first time. Mengele was there, with other SS men. And from afar I saw naked women, pass between two SS. Mengele waved his hand, left right.

And this hand gesture, I did not know, meant life or death. Life, death. It’s very easy. Unlike most of his colleagues, who see selections as a trying and difficult mission, Mengele appreciates them. Prisoners see him often smile or whistle a song. He is particularly interested by the twins, for his genetic research.

Identical twins, it was great for someone who was looking to experiment. We are experimenting on one, we don’t touch each other and we can observe the differences, because we work on the same DNA, This is what Mengele was looking for. The German Foundation for research, grants him a work grant.

The grant allows it to equip a pathology laboratory, in building 10 of Auschwitz. Mengele’s work on the twins aim to demonstrate, the superiority of heredity over environmental factors and thus support the doctrine Nazi of superiority, of the Aryan race. These studies may have other parallel objectives.

Today’s doctors don’t know not why in some women, the eggs split in two. Why Most have a child and some have two. If they could unravel this mystery, it became the father of the Germany of the future. Every German mother could have 2 children in each pregnancy

And we could replace the losses war very quickly. For him, it would be an extraordinary accomplishment. If one of the twins died of illness, Mengele killed the other to be able to compare autopsies. Vera Alexander, a deportee, reports how he operated on two twins, to try to make them Siamese.

An SS brought them back in a terrible state. The girl or the boy, the one who was hunchbacked, was sewn to the other, back to back. Cuffs sewn back to back. There was also a horrible smell. Gangrene. Their incision was infected and the children cried day and night.

For his actions, Mengele received the War Merit Cross and is promoted to chief physician from the Birkenau sub-camp. His cruelty knows no bounds. The baby is born. In the morning Mengele came and he said: “This woman must be placed bandages on his chest. She must not breastfeed the baby.

I want to see how long a baby can live without food. Every day, Mengele came make your observations. The baby started to become more and more skeletal. It was horrible to see. On the eighth day, when Mengele came, he said: “Tomorrow at 8 a.m., be ready with your baby,

I will come to get you.” And I knew he would come search for U.S, to take us to the gas chamber. At 8 a.m., Mengele arrived. I was ready to be taken away. He asked me: “Where is the child?” I answered him : “She died in the night.”

“I want to see the corpse!” And he left. I was told he was looking for him, but in this pile of corpses, find such a small body, even for him, Doctor Mengele, it was difficult. In the winter of 1945, the steamroller of the Red Army, stop the killing factory of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

With many other Auschwitz doctors, Mengele is transferred January 17, 1945, in a German camp in Poland, not far from the German border. He takes with him two sample boxes and documents about his experiences. The Red Army liberates Auschwitz on January 27. It’s in his escape that he takes off his SS uniform.

He disguises himself as an officer of the Wehrmacht. Mengele’s name appears on a list Nazis wanted by the Allies, a long list of several hundreds of names. No one knew if he was still alive at the end of the war. And apart from the highest leaders like Himmler, Hitler or Goering,

Those who were lower in the list, like Mengele, did not know whether they were there or not. He still escaped because he knew enough to understand. He wasn’t a stupid person and he understood the enormity of what had happened. He knew that Auschwitz was a death camp, the largest of centers of extermination.

Upon arriving in Germany, he was taken prisoner twice, by American forces during spring and summer 1945. It is even initially registered under his real name. His decision not to tattooed when he joined the SS, saves him the first time. They made them take off their shirts,

Raise your arms before to scroll through them. Those who had the group tattoo blood were put aside, to be questioned. If we didn’t have a tattoo and we told a compelling story, we could be released. He gets away with it partly because he is drowned in a human mass.

Hundreds of thousands and millions people were displaced, civilians, soldiers, who had gotten rid of of their uniforms. The refugee camps created by the British and the Americans, were full. Chaos and mischief, save the SS doctor. This Nazi war criminal is not identified. He narrowly escapes justice.

As with many Nazis who managed to escape, success sometimes holds to skill, to money and partly to luck. Mengele was lucky. He had identity papers in the name of Fritz Ullmann, that he was able to use and hide other unnecessary papers, in the handlebars of a bicycle in Germany.

Everything went well for him. Josef Mengele leaves the camp American in July 1945, under his real identity. His luck is to get a double identity papers from a doctor, he too, freed, of which he made knowledge in captivity. This is Fritz Ullmann.

Once his papers are in his pocket, he modifies them a little and becomes Fritz Hollmann. Mengele, of whom we do not know really the name at this point, like all criminals Nazi war, was the subject of a declaration from the Allies since 1943, wherever they are, the Allies promised they would punish them.

Implementation of this promise begins immediately after the war, with the Nuremberg trials, against 24 of the main perpetrators of the Third Reich. They are accused of conspiracy, war crime and crimes against humanity. But the criminals are much more numerous. What they didn’t know that was the number of these criminals.

A British officer delegated to war crimes said: “We were absolutely not prepared for crime levels, to which we are found confronted.” Obviously, gather elements against these people, then track them down, is something very complicated and which takes a lot of time. Even if the Allies do a lot of work, denazification of Germany,

Few resources are implemented available to teams, responsible for tracking down Nazi criminals. British teams chasing war criminals, only had a few cars and two photographers. They operated in a very large occupied area. And they were trying to track down thousands of criminals. Thousands ! Mengele’s name is, however, mentioned several times,

During the Nuremberg trials which opened in November 1945. But the Allies have dozens of people with the name Mengele, scattered throughout Germany. American Crime Investigators of war interviewed witnesses and Mengele’s name appeared, but with different spellings, like Megel or Mengela, like we pronounced it sometimes, but that was all.

There was indeed a doctor called Mengele, no first name, who worked at Auschwitz. It was a starting point, but it was insufficient information, for an investigation and that did not allow to do, downhill and apprehend him at his home. Mengele could also have died in the chaotic retreat, of the German army.

A feeling reinforced by the declarations spontaneous from his wife and his family at the GI’s, who visit them in the fall of 1945. It is said that Mengele’s wife behaved like a widow. I’m interviewing a woman near New York, originally from Günzburg.

She said that Josef Mengele had was entitled to a funeral mass. The Mengele family comes together around one of its members. All were pro-Nazis and beyond considerations emotional, financial interests at stake are too important. Economic survival is at stake, of one of the greatest families in the region.

This man who came from from a very wealthy family, did what one would expect. He returns to his family. This is where he will be safe. They will help him. He returns to his wife and his only son, born in 1944 and his family told him that he can’t stay,

Because the Americans came several times to look for it. For his safety and that of his family, a hideout is found at the complicit farmers, near Rosenheim, a town in Bavaria. Officially, Josef Mengele no longer exists. He is Fritz Hollmann, a farm worker responsible for planting and harvest the potatoes.

His wife, Irene, visits him every fifteen days. He welcomes her at the station and often, they walk along the river. Mengele thus spent three years almost quiet, before a new event does not revive his fears. His name is mentioned during the trial Nazi doctors from Nuremberg, which ends at the end of 1947.

Doctors, colleagues, people he served with, people he knew. 3 and a half years after the end of the war, found himself on the bench accused with perspective, the death penalty. They did the same things than him, not only at Auschwitz. He starts to say to himself that he’s not really safe.

Maybe he should go a little further than Rosenheim. The fugitive doctor became a farm worker, is consumed by fear. He spaced out Irene’s visits to avoid being spotted. Mengele cherished the hope of seeing again one day his son Rolf, born in 1944, which he has almost never seen. The doctors’ trial concentration camps,

Ends up destroying this hope. Everything he held for some had flown away. He was a convinced Nazi and Nazism had lived. He had played a role which seemed very important to him, as a doctor in a camp, which no longer existed. He was a married man and well that it still technically is,

He no longer had a family life. The life he had known had disappeared. Fearing that his capture does not end in a trial and a death sentence, Josef Mengele clarifies his escape with his family. The Odessa network, which allegedly led to the escape the great Nazi war criminals, is a legend.

Also, unlike others Nazis recruited by the Allies, this SS war criminal doctor, has no value in the eyes Westerners. These pseudo-scientific works have no interest. Neither for the Vatican networks. But, it has important financial resources. There were independents, small groups who proposed, assistance in obtaining passes.

And the Mengele family was able to purchase the services, of one of these independent networks, they were available. It wasn’t officially the 4th Reich. It’s not something that he created from scratch, it was money that allowed him to escape. The chosen destination is South America and more precisely Argentina.

To get there, he needs meet some conditions. First of all, he needs new papers and a new identity. Thanks to the International Red Cross, by Fritz Hollmann, he becomes Helmut Gregor. They were documents well made. It was impossible to prove that this man, was not the one that he pretended to be.

So, in the absence national passport, obtain documents of the International Red Cross, was relatively easy. Let us keep in mind that besides these Nazis on the run, there were millions refugees in Europe. The situation was chaotic, even several years later the end of the war.

But this new identity does not completely reassure him. He must travel as discreetly as possible. Josef Mengele, alias Helmut Gregor, left Germany on April 17, 1949. Its objective is to join the port of Genoa in Italy. The road is long, a little more 1000 kilometers at the time.

The road is also strewn with pitfalls. He has three countries to cross. Germany, Austria and Italy. The 3 countries are occupied by American troops, in addition to local authorities. The roads are crowded with refugees, including some survivors of Auschwitz, who might recognize him and denounce him. But everything is carefully planned.

At each stage, an accomplice tells him what to do. Its first objective is to arrive incognito at Innsbruck station, in the Alps. He achieved this at the end of April 1949. Second step, always arrive by train, to the small border town Austrian mountain pass of Brenner.

From there it is only a few hours walk from the Italian border town, from Vipiteno. But first you have to cross the border illegally. Early morning, at the very beginning of May, the weather conditions are good. He launches into this perilous crossing, via a small mountain path. A few hours later, relieved,

He is in Vipiteno, Italy. There’s a little less left a month in this town. At the end of May, he took a train which, after several stops, leads him to large port of Genoa. In Genoa, in the capital of Ligure, he can blend in with the population

And the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are waiting to board, for New World destinations. Helmut Gregor is hosted by his accomplices in an apartment, while waiting for him to get his boat ticket and the visa for Argentina. He has money given to him by his family.

He is alone for this departure towards a new life. His wife, Irene, refuses to follow him and join him, even if he succeeds in his escape. Nevertheless, he encounters difficulties, with a port official. Mengele does what he thinks he is the thing to do with civil servants.

They offer him money to bribe him and get the stamps which he needs. It does not work. The official takes it badly and Mengele is thrown into prison. He thinks he’s cursed, that this is the end. He will miss his departure for freedom, on the North King for South America,

Because he is stuck in this prison in Genoa and that makes him very bitter. With a few bribes, he is released just in time. But this arrest seems to be the end of the road for him. It could have ended here in 49, in northern Italy, but this is not the case.

Finally, at the beginning of June 1949, Mengele, alias Helmut Gregor, manages to corrupt another Italian customs official, a little less careful. Luckily, the North King, the liner he was to take, is still at the dock. With his papers in order and a visa for Argentina, he gets on board.

After 6 weeks of crossing, he arrives in the port from Buenos Aires. While waiting to contact contacts given to him, Mengele settles in for a few days in downtown Buenos Aires, where he takes a room in the small Palermo hotel. Who’s better for a Nazi trying to escape the Nazi hunters,

That a country where there is a large German community, where the landscapes of the south of the country in Patagonia, would remind him of Austria and Germany? The lakes, the mountains resemble much to those of Europe. He speaks German. He will make many friends able to keep quiet.

And there already exist kinds financial structures, likely to help him. Therefore, this makes it a very attractive destination. This important community German from Argentina, is also one of the richest. She has immense agricultural fields and all kinds of industries. With the rise of Nazism, she will provide support unfailingly to Hitler

And his Third Reich. The Germans of Argentina will raise funds and send thousands of men in combat in Europe. The Argentine diet with Juan Peron at its head, is also fascinating. The political system therefore appears very comfortable for a Nazi. If fascism is dead in Germany, he is doing well in Argentina.

The Nazis therefore integrated very well. When Mengele arrived in Argentina, Juan Peron has been in power since 1946. After war, he continues to benefit, huge assets repatriated Nazi financiers, clandestinely in Argentina. Ultra-nationalist and populist, he agrees to protect the interests of the German community, still very widely pro-Nazi after the war.

He makes his country a sanctuary for former Nazi war criminals and pro-Nazis. The Argentine Catholic Church was at the other end of the network, set up by the Vatican. And some of the worst criminals like Draganovic or others in Rome, sent wanted Croats, such as Pavelic in Argentina.

Because we considered that it was the safest place there. The list of Nazis who found asylum in Argentina number in the hundreds, or even thousands. Among those important of the upper hierarchy, we can find Klaus Barbie and then Walter Kutschmann, who was a captain in the SS.

Erich Priebke is also a famous case. He wasn’t really worried only a very short time before passing away. And also arrived in Argentina, thanks to Peron’s protection, a certain Walter Rauff. Walter Rauff is infamous for having been the inventor gas chamber trucks. As for Otto Skorzeny, his arrival was possible,

Thanks to the journey of Eva Peron in Europe in 1947. Quickly, Mengele enters in contact with the network, Nazi aid center in Buenos Aires. The first 2 people that he meets, are two former aces of the Nazi Air Force. Hans Rudel, with whom he will become very friendly,

And Adolphe Galland are installed in the Argentine capital. Their help is very valuable to him. Thanks to these two Germans, he meets a third man. On arrival, Mengele also gets a lot of help, by a man called Roberto Mertzig. He is also one people who participate,

To the protection granted to Mengele by the Argentine State, thanks to his very high-ranking contacts. He himself was responsible for receiving as a nominee, the money that Mengele’s father sent from Europe, towards Buenos Aires. Mertzig even makes work Mengele for a time, in his own business.

All these people are part of Peron’s entourage. The president sometimes appears with former Nazi dignitaries, like in this new photo, where he is alongside Otto Skorzeny, a German officer and SS commando, particularly well known for his daring missions, often on direct orders from Adolf Hitler. Peron, in his own memoirs, confess openly,

His meetings with Mengele, in the presidential villa of Olivos. In the 1950s in Buenos Aires, there were a lot of Germans. But we must remember that there was also and there is always, a very large Jewish population. Nearly 200,000 Jews lived in Buenos Aires.

These Nazis must therefore have lived next to a large Jewish population, which must have disturbed them. At the beginning of the 50s, Mengele leaves the neighborhood by Vicente Lopez, for the neighborhood a lot most chic in Florida. He rents the house of a Nazi sympathizer, at number 2458, from Arenales Street.

Rounded portico with columns, green garden. It’s a house much more in tune with the social pretensions of the doctor. Mengele finds here a little his old family lifestyle. Discreet charm of the educated bourgeoisie. He’s a loner. He’s not really a party animal. He does not strike from his side friendly or sociable.

He’s a pretty serious person. After all, he wanted to become a teacher university in Frankfurt, for example. At the beginning of 1953, the Doctor moves again to settle in the city center, where he rents an apartment on the first floor of number 431, from Tachari Street.

A strange choice considering how few charm of this dilapidated building, in this noisy street. Maybe at 42, this alone and single man, was he looking for more possibilities meeting women. What we know, it’s that he goes out more and frequents a restaurant in particular famous in Buenos Aires.

If we went to the cafe A.B.C in Buenos Aires, in the 50s, we could meet there the elite of the Nazi regime. There we found Mengele, Eichmann, important people, not the most senior leaders, but high-ranking individuals in the regime, ranking officers. All these beautiful people sipping a beer, tasting food traditional German.

We can not say if they all knew, who exactly were the others. But Mengele, alias Gregor is not inactive. They even start to earn a good living. With the help of his family, he invests in a company framework, thanks to his friend Hans Rudel, he also develops trade family agricultural machines.

Rudel notably connects him with contacts in neighboring Paraguay, where Mengele frequently travels. Recently published documents by the Argentine government, indicate that he might have illegally practiced medicine, including abortions. One of my biggest surprises, it was to discover to what extent, he adapted easily to this new life and how it prospered.

Mengele was rich. It made a big difference. Other criminals who fled in South America, like Adolf Eichmann who managed the deportation trains, Eichmann worked as foreman, in a Mercedes factory, not Mengele. In fact, Mengele didn’t have a job and fixed schedules. At first he didn’t work at all. He started investing in companies.

He was taking his time. Contact is also permanent with Germany and his family. In 1954, a court in Düsseldorf, grants a divorce to his wife Irene, remained in Germany. A separation which he accepts via his lawyer. Mengele also knows that his brother Karl, died in 1949,

Leaving a widow, Martha and a son, Karl Heinz. He also knows that his father is worried to the idea that his beautiful daughter, Don’t remarry anyone. She owns shares of the company. The solution to preserve the company, is to marry Martha to Joseph. The only problem is making sure let them meet.

For this to happen, Mengele must come to Europe. To do this, he must find his true identity. In 1956, he’s so comfortable in his new life in Buenos Aires, that he goes to the embassy from West Germany and says: “By the way, my name is not Helmut Gregor,

That’s the name I used at my arrival. My name is Josef Mengele. I would like to get a passport in my real name.” “No one said to themselves: you are arrived here in 1949 under a false name and you want to find your true self surname? What does it mean ?”

“No, we’ll give it to him.” After obtaining a copy his birth certificate, via West German Embassy from Argentina in 1956, Mengele obtains a permit Argentinian stay. He uses this document to obtain an Argentinian passport, mentioning his true identity. He then undertakes a journey which seems today of incredible audacity.

In February 1956, he goes to Europe, as Mengele. First stop, Switzerland, in the ski resort of Engelberg. He found in this hotel his son Rolf, to whom we said that he is his uncle Fritz. Martha and her son Karl Heinz, are also holidays. Everyone gets to know each other in this idyllic setting,

Of the Swiss German Alps. Mengele then pushes his stay to Germany, with Martha. He goes to Günzburg. He goes to Wiesbaden, for three days, he visits to former colleagues of the Institute of Kaiser Wilhelm. Besides, it would be very interesting to know what happened there. In the spring, back in Argentina,

Mengele decides to live under his real name. In the summer of 1956, the doctor goes to the embassy of Germany to regularize his situation. He plans to remarry and above all take out a loan, to invest in a new society. To achieve this, this time he must obtain,

A passport from his country of birth. Few weeks later, September 11, 1956, he obtains the famous sesame of the Republic of West Germany. How is it possible ? How do diplomats not do they account for anything? I don’t think there was corruption, bribery, because it wasn’t necessary.

If you were a diplomat, a politician, a doctor, a lawyer or a German businessman, after the Second World War, 10 or 11 years old after the end of the war. No German would ever asked another German: “What did you do during the war?” It was a taboo subject.

The Germans, at that time, were not… How to say… did not have the will to judge criminals, which caused problems to German society. Now, Mengele was a doctor. The doctors who had graduated, in a completely legal way, high-level intellectuals, these posed problems to German society. This German negligence, which resembles help,

Allows Mengele to carry out his professional life in Argentina. He personally invests massively in 2 pharmaceutical laboratories, plus 1 million Deutsche Mark, lent to him by his family. The doctor intends to put applying his passion, medical science. The offices are installed in this building in Buenos Aires.

The first case that to do with his profession, is purchasing a part v*** laboratories, whose premises were located in the center of Buenos Aires. The director of this laboratory, a certain doctor Bahizi, put him in contact with two people of German origin. Together they founded, it is recorded in the registers,

From the Argentine Ministry of Health, the Fadrofarm laboratory. He continues to manufacture there too, products intended for sale to the public, Like nothing ever happened and always under his own name. On the papers presented for the constitution of the limited company, Mengele’s name appears. I called him Doctor Gregor,

Because it’s under that name that it had been introduced to me. And then he corrected me and said that it was Doctor Mengele, not Gregor. This surprised me quite a bit, but he explained to me, that he had taken this name when he had left Germany after the war, due to political problems.

He was very kind, always happy and always told jokes. He loved to whistle tunes especially classical music. I don’t remember which composer but Mozart, I think. Happy in business, Manguel is also emotional. In October 1956, Martha and her son Karl Heinz, join him in Buenos Aires.

They all settle into the new house that the doctor has just bought, to shelter his new family. It is located in Virrey Vertiz, in the upscale suburb of Olivos. We even find the Mengeles in the Buenos Aires telephone directory. They married in January 1958, during a stay vacation in Montevideo,

The capital of neighboring Uruguay. Martha is a woman of character who always attracted him and it was mutual. She has a son around the same age. that his own son, Rolf, who will not be before his 14th birthday, that his father was still alive. So even before Rolf is not aware of this,

Martha packs her bags and moved to Buenos Aires, with his son and wife Mengele. This is a striking example family with problems, with a capital P. She is ready to live with him and his son thinks he’s doing a very good father.

The logical continuation for Mengele after this forced exile of a few years, it is a definitive return to Germany. He feels he is not wanted and that its true place is in Gunzburg, at the head of the family business. But a series of elements goes again, force the fate of Dr. Mengele.

He probably performed operations clandestine, notably abortions, when he lived in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He was even denounced for having performed an abortion, about a young woman who died following an infection. The police then arrested him. He clearly benefited protection, who allowed him to escape of this unfortunate situation,

Which could have cost him dearly. All this to tell you the type protection from which he benefited. Mengele was only one of the doctors interviewed. Innocent, but shaken. He fears that bad publicity around the case, does not lead to the discovery of his Nazi past. At the end of 1958,

He is going on a long business trip in neighboring Paraguay to be forgotten. He returns several times to Buenos Aires to take care of his business and visit his family. Meanwhile, in Paraguay, Mengele begins to prepare its installation, in the Alto Parana region, more precisely in a known place,

Under the name of New Germany, in the town of Hohenau. It was there that he met Alban Krug, a sympathizer of the Nazi cause. This man, who is responsible of the agricultural cooperative, sells him land and this set of houses. Another event, this time coming from Europe, will rush his plans.

The only people who worked a little bit, were people like Simon Wiesenthal, Serge and Beate Klarsfeld. They were amateurs operating independently, without any official support, but really impregnated of a great moral sense. The incessant efforts of hunters of Nazis, Simon Wiesenthal. and Hermann Langbein are starting to bear fruit. Langbein,

A survivor of Auschwitz, brings together numerous testimonies, on Mengele’s activities during the war. During his research, Langbein discovered Mengele’s divorce papers, which indicated an address in Buenos Aires. Wiesenthal and him put pressure on the West German government, for him to issue a warrant international stoppage. On June 5, 1959,

A German court in Freiburg establishes a first act accusation against Mengele. The prosecutor initiates a procedure and an investigation is opened. We ask the police of Günzburg to investigate. But Gunzburg being a city under the Mengele company cup, he is immediately informed that he is wanted. Josef Mengele, informed,

Makes his arrangements and flees. In the meantime, Germany has launched an international arrest warrant, followed by an extradition request against the doctor. Argentina starts by refusing and when the extradition is approved, Mengele already lives in Paraguay for a while. This country, led by Alfredo Stroessner, a dictator of Germanic ancestry,

Even grants him nationality in November 1959. At one point he must have thought he could live there as José Mengele and avoid being extradited to Germany. Paraguay had no treaty extradition with Germany, no more than Argentina for that matter. He could have thought that by going to Paraguay, Stroessner would need money.

His family had and the Germans there would protect him. And once in Paraguay, we never extradite a Paraguayan citizen. At the same time, in 1959, without anyone being informed, the secret services Israelis, the Mossad, trigger Operation Attila. Since 1958, the government German and the CIA,

Know the location in Buenos Aires by Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the final solution, but don’t reveal it for reasons of state. It seems that fear was that Eichmann, denounces Hans Globke, close to the Nazis and then a member of the government of the German Chancellor. Konrad Adenauer.

This is information reported by the girlfriend of Eichmann’s son, in Buenos Aires which sets fire to the powder. There was a German-Argentinian quite poor, called Lothar Hermann, whose daughter was dating a young man living in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. And this young man kept bragging, of the identity of his father.

And when it came to my ears by Lothar Hermann, it made him think to a wanted Nazi. He sent an anonymous letter to German prosecutors. This letter landed on the desk, of a certain Fritz Bauer. Stroke of luck, the information landed in Germany, on Fritz Bauer’s desk, the first Jewish German prosecutor.

Little confidence in justice from his country, it transmits the information to the Israeli authorities, notably to the head of Mossad, Isser Harel. When the Israelis set up a team, to kidnap Adolf Eichmann in 1959, they had in their possession decisive information, proving that Mengele found himself in Argentina, in Buenos Aires.

At that moment, Isser… Harel decides to kidnap both, Eichmann who is the project manager, of the final solution and then, Mengele. The operation to capture Eichmann is then triggered by Israel, who wishes on this occasion a trial, the Nuremberg of the Jewish people.

On May 11, 1960, the SS was kidnapped in the middle of the street, right in front of his house, in Buenos Aires, in the popular district of Olivos, by a commando of Mossad agents. Agents hope to do the same with Mengele. When Mossad agents arrive in Buenos Aires,

They imagine themselves capturing Eichmann and Mengele, but he is already in Paraguay. He would have very well could have been on the Moon. It is an extremely difficult to penetrate, for Israeli agents. It would have been difficult to introduce yourself and politely ask, Josef Mengele. Mengele passed between the cracks.

Eichmann is sequestered in a hideout, rented by Israeli agents. He recognizes his identity and signs a declaration, by which he accepts to be judged in Israel. On May 21, he was transported to Israel, on board a company plane Israeli EL AL. Mossad learns that Mengele went to Paraguay.

But after this feat totally illegal. and openly assumed in Argentina, the Israeli agency is wary Paraguayan authorities. Josef Mengele is protected, by his new nationality. We could not hope to seize from him only by force. By the use of weapons. But due to the situation particular to the time

And tensions with Argentina generated by the Eichmann affair, and in order to avoid a scandal before his trial in Jerusalem, I decided that we could not not do it this way. I started exploring other options to capture it. More elaborate ways to infiltrate Mengele’s close circle and finally reach it inside.

The accused, with other accomplices, during the period 1939-1945 implemented the execution of the Nazi plan called “the final solution” killing millions of Jews. After a trial, Eichmann is sentenced to the death penalty. He was hanged shortly before midnight, on May 31, 1962.

While she had provided Mengele with the official documents under his real name, which had enabled him to regularize his situation in Argentina, West Germany ended up offering a reward for his capture. Mengele feels hunted. Now that Mengele is in Paraguay, he erected an impassable wall to prevent him from being found.

And of course he doesn’t live in Asuncion, the capital, but in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere. From that moment on, he started to live in a very different way. And I think he was constantly living in fear of being captured. Ultimately, this group of neo-Nazis that he had started to frequent,

Tell him they know a guy who will find the ideal place for him. Wolfgang Gerhardt. He will know where to take her and Gerhard takes care of getting it to Brazil. He’s still the former flying ace Nazi, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, which puts him in contact with a Nazi sympathizer of Austrian origin.

His name is Wolfgang Gerhard, a former Hitler Youth member. He smuggles Mengele in Brazil, waiting to find him a new base, he welcomes her into his home for a few months on a farm near Sao Paulo. We have rather forgotten the role of Brazil as a refuge for the Nazis,

But many Nazis found themselves there. One of the most famous was called Franz Stangl, the former commander of Treblinka, where 800,000 to 1 million Jews, were massacred upon their arrival, which therefore makes it one of the largest mass murderers in history. Stangl lived many years in Brazil without being worried.

Brazil was therefore a safe place, where he could go. Wolfgang Gerhard, finds him a foster family. Geza and Gitta Stammer, a couple of Hungarian expatriates. Thanks to a contribution financier of the Mengeles, the couple buys a farm in Nova Europa, 300 kilometers to the west from Sao Paulo.

Gerhard introduces Mengele to the Stammers, under a new identity. The doctor uses the fictitious name by Peter Hochbichler, an emigrant of Swiss nationality who plans to start a new life in Brazil. He becomes farm manager. His life consisted of hiding, in diapers the most modest in society, to mix with people he hated.

All this diversity. These lower classes, these dark-skinned Brazilians. These blacks, these immigrants. Because in doing so, they could remain free. Mengele’s presence is a boon for the Stammers. They need arms in addition to its capital. Furthermore, Mengele refuses to be paid. He only asks to be fed and housed,

In exchange for his work. Geza is an engineer who travels a lot for his job. They often leave Gitta alone on the farm with Mengele, for long periods. We attribute to them a sentimental adventure. They were going to stay loyal. It is likely that they perceived large sums of money,

Transferred to South America, from the family Mengele in Bavaria. It was a very satisfactory for the Stammers. They had a tenant who was going to pay his rent, for many years. But it is also the time where we see Mengele, becoming more and more paranoid.

This is the time when Mengele begins writing a diary. This is also the time when he wrote numerous letters to his family. He is isolated and passes long moments to write. In his somewhat senseless diaries, written feverishly, in which he talks about himself in the third person,

He justifies what he did during the war. These are justifications endless and convoluted for what it boils down to, to atrocities. But he called it a job for the good of humanity. He considered himself to be a pioneer of medicine. But the real Mengele shines through in personal letters, addressed to his family.

Hundreds of pages which he sends to Germany and which he did not imagine that they would be made public. He thinks his family will be sufficiently sensible, to get rid of it. These letters show us that the man who lived in Brazil, hates his life there more and more. He feels isolated.

The press mentions things horrible on him. From his point of view, he does not benefit from fortune and the success accumulated by his father. He should return to Germany and take his place again, within the family. It’s Martha’s return and Karl Heinz in Germany, in December 1959,

That Rolf learns along the way of a conversation, that Uncle Fritz is none other than his father. Mengele sends him a letter directly. He has enough free time to constantly blame his son, whom he has never met, telling him he’s not productive,

That he is lazy, that he should be a doctor or a lawyer. He poses as a demanding, distant father, a war criminal in hiding, but who nevertheless seeks, to play a role in the family. Thanks to a new contribution financier of Mengele, the couple bought in 1962 a new, bigger farm,

In Serra Negra, 150 kilometers away north of Sao Paulo. But the Stammers end by discovering his true identity. This is the first time that Mengele is well-known. One day someone left dragging a newspaper and there was an article about an executioner Nazis as they were called.

I saw a photo of a young man 30 or 33 years old with that look. And I told myself that this face was very familiar to me, with this smile and those gaping teeth. I showed him the photograph and I said to him: “Look at this photo, that sounds a lot like you.

You are so mysterious. You live here with us, so be honest and tell us if it is good about you?” Later he said: “You are right, I live with you, then you have the right to know. Unfortunately, it’s me. And he also realizes, it also appeared during the Eichmann trial,

That a name comes up more and more. And that name is his, Mengele. He realizes that he is becoming more more infamous, not only within from a rather limited Jewish community, but he becomes a kind of incarnation bad for a lot of people.

Mengele manages to convince them not to report him to the authorities, arguing that it could be accused of having protected him. And above all by buying their silence. Witnesses notice paranoia increasing of Mengele, who feels more and more hunted. Wherever he goes, the dogs followed him. He had 14 or 15 dogs,

Sometimes more, sometimes less. He didn’t bring them here, but he was used to to come with me here, with her binoculars to scan the horizon. And I did the same thing. Could you see the road from here? We can see a large part of the road, since the view is quite clear.

At the same time, informed of the possibility that the fugitive, took refuge in Brazil, West Germany expands his arrest warrant to this country. In parallel, Zvi Aharoni, one of the Mossad agents who participated in the capture of Eichmann is placed at the head of a new team responsible for localization. and arrest Mengele.

Investigations in Paraguay gave nothing. The Mossad cannot succeed either to intercept correspondence, between Mengele and his wife Martha, which is based in Italy. These men follow a news lead revealed by a former Nazi, of Dutch origin refugee in Argentina. This is Willem Sassen. The noose is tightening.

He was one of those independents installed in South America and who had a lot of contacts. And when the Israelis caught him, they told him they were going bring him back to Israel, like Eichmann. He had nothing of Eichmann, unless he does not give them useful information.

Sassen gave them the name from someone connected to Mengele. He said : “It’s a man called Gerhard, a 1.90 meter Austrian. He knows things about Mengele. He places Wolfgang Gerhard under close supervision. One day he moves into the rural region of Serra Negra. Mossad team spots a European who could well be,

The one he’s been looking for for months. It was quite difficult to photograph this place, but we did our best. We tried to use local and we dressed very simply. I remember that one of these men had walked barefoot for 8 km, just to make it local.

Once, as we passed by car near buildings, I met a man that I thought was Mengele, because I had seen photos of him on German television and it was the same man. The agent informs immediately his superiors. But the heavy logistics necessary for capture, financial limitations and the need to concentrate,

On Israel’s immediate neighbors, push Mossad leaders to put an end to the operation. Again, Mengele escapes at the last minute. Mossad team withdraws therefore from South America. And when I say that the Israelis frustrated me, they do like everyone else intelligence services, the French, the English, Americans,

They discover new information and do not share them. They don’t talk about it to other services, they do not return to Brazil, they do not inform Simon Wiesenthal. And therefore the only organization who had a lead, on where Mengele was, who could have brought the matter to fruition, it was Israel from 1961,

And a conjunction of coincidences and international affairs, works in Mengele’s favor. He has no idea what point they passed near him and how everything would have could finish for him. At the end of the 60s, they are private Nazi hunters who take over the tracking, to capture Mengele.

The best known of them is Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Shoah. Wiesenthal tended to exaggerate his own successes. And also to exaggerate to what extent, he was about to to find Mengele. For Wiesenthal, Mengele was a good way to find funding. If he said he almost found the trace of Mengele,

Then he would receive more funds to continue his work. He’s a Nazi hunter, but not a Nazi finder. Mengele and the Stammers bought in 1969, a new house in Caieiras, located a hundred kilometers away north of Sao Paulo. A large villa at the top of a hill surrounded by land.

The trio wants to get closer from the Brazilian capital, while continuing to work the land. And for Mengele, undoubtedly, continue to blur the lines. In 1971, Wolfgang Gerhard, gives Mengele his ID card. The Doctor changes identities again, the fifth since 1945. He becomes Wolfgang Gerhard. But far from being reassured,

Mengele feels increasingly vulnerable. At that time, he had let himself be pushed, a long, very full mustache, in a pitiful effort to disguise yourself. But he was so anxious that he got into the habit, to chew his mustache. And in doing so, just like cats have hairballs in their stomach,

He starts to have intense abdominal pain. As a doctor, he knows he will have to have this ball removed, impossible to digest. But he lives under a false identity, that of a much younger man. The doctor who comes to operate has difficulty believe they are the same person.

But it’s symptomatic from Brazil at the time, although clearly it is of a German under a false name, the doctor operates on him anyway. Without asking too many questions, and do not report it to the authorities. Weakened, Mengele is more and more irritable with his guests. Relationships deteriorate at the highest point,

After this dozen years spent together. I feel sorry for the Stammers, because he’s a host quite deplorable. Mengele is very demanding. He has a bad temper. He constantly argues with them. Some days he didn’t say not a word and was thoughtful. He set to work, accomplished all his tasks, but he remained silent.

He started to do long walks. He walked for hours. Other days he was more talkative, was more cheerful and got along better with everyone. And suddenly, he got into arguments, started to complain. Following an argument at the end of 1974, maybe because of the old man more and more horrifying

And also because of this relationship between Mengele and Gitta Stammer, the trio separates. For the first time since Argentina, Mengele, alias Gerhard, settles here, in a little house modest and dilapidated, located at 55 rue Alvarenga, in Eldorado, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. This time he lives completely alone,

In the middle of Brazilian diversity. It was very smart to move in on the borders of one of the cities, the most popular in Brazil, in one of the poorest neighborhoods, to mingle with the population and live in the open, hide in the open

In the middle of so many people that no one wouldn’t know who you are. But Dr. Mengele lives in fear. We wonder about the reason for which Mengele had a pistol. Was he preparing to shoot on Mossad agents, who were going to break down his door?

Or did he fear crime in Sao Paulo? Both are reasonably possible. If someone asks me, I would say that it’s because of the Israelis. But also because I would like whether this is the real reason. This would mean that he lived in fear until the end.

To try to reassure him and always against sums of money, increasingly important, Wolfgang Gerhard presents him a new adoptive family, the Bosserts. There is Wolfram, his wife Liselotte and their two children, Andreas and Sabine. They live in Sao Paulo, approximately about thirty kilometers from Mengele.

Reading the letters exchanged between Mengele and Mr Bossert, the latter was very close politically of Mengele. He was also an intelligent man. That’s what’s great in South America, there are always Germans of origin who think that Germany, was badly treated after the Second World War. And yet, time has passed.

At the time he is with the Bosserts, We are in the 70s. 30 years after the end of the war. And yet he continues to think, that the fact that Mengele is still wanted amounts to persecution. This protection had become not something shameful, but an honorable act according to them.

The two men like each other and for Mengele, children Bosserts are a valve. He spends a lot of time with this family. We found a recording unique voice of Josef Mengele, dating from this period. He is at the piano and sings a song for his new friends.

He also takes care of children who he builds a boat. He takes them fishing. Mengele becomes a little their surrogate uncle. Thanks to this family, he reestablishes social ties. He feels protected, as his name leaks more and more ink. But Mengele’s health has been deteriorating since 1972.

He suffered a heart attack vascular in 1976. He suffers from hypertension and an ear infection, which disrupts his sense of balance. Alarming news family in Germany. Rolf, who has not seen his father, since his stay in Europe in 1956, decides to give him back visit in 1977. He also travels incognito,

Under an assumed name. I really had to force myself to appear cordial, to express a minimum of feelings. He was very moved by the situation. His eyes were shining with tears. He was also very proud of this situation, because he said to himself that everything the world in the family,

Would not have been able to come see him. He considered me like a brave soldier, who had crossed enemy lines. He wanted to go to South America and hear his father tell him that he had hated living there, that he had done what he had to do,

But this place had always disgusted him. In the first days of our meeting, I avoided mentioning sensitive subjects. That is to say Auschwitz. Subsequently, I approached them and it exploded. How can you imagine that I could do these things? Can’t you see it’s a lie? Propaganda?

He justified himself by saying that he couldn’t help hundreds thousands of people while an organization, such a terrible system, was in place. He justified himself by saying that he had helped many, that he had helped some. I could never understand how does a human being could act in this way.

And the fact that it is my father doesn’t change anything. For me this goes against of all ethics. Of all morality, of all understanding. And human nature. But for all that, Rolf does not denounce his father. Still, he condemns what his father did. He states that even today, he would not denounce him.

I also think that Rolf made it for his mother, Irene, who was still alive at the time and to whom he was very close. And he knew that if his father was put on trial, she would find herself in the heart of the storm. On February 5, 1979,

Mengele takes a bus to join his Bossert friends, in their house in the city coastal area of ​​Bertioga. This is where he often comes swim and cool off, during the Brazilian summer. On February 7, 1979, while he bathes, he has another heart attack.

It was around 4:30 a.m. We are went to the beach to swim. Suddenly my son saw that Mengele was in the water, lying on his side. I saw it too. I shouted to my husband that he was something happened to the uncle.

His head was half in the water and he was in great difficulty. His gaze was fixed, lost in the void. He was trying to swim towards the shore. My husband tried to bring him back the sand, but it was already too late. Mengele dies without having seen again his son and his family.

He is buried in the greatest discretion, in the municipal cemetery in Embu, located about thirty kilometers from Sao Paulo. He is buried anonymously next to Frédérique, Wolfgang Gerhard’s mother, whose identity he has used since 1971. No registration, no tombstone, does not indicate the presence of a second body.

I am absolutely convinced that for the Mengele family in Germany, for the Bosserts and the Stammers who had taken care of him, for everyone who had been in contact with him, it was imperative that his death remains a secret, because as far as they were concerned, it was impunity.

It was all over, he was dead and we would continue to chase a ghost. Some people who had protected Mengele, could have been taken to court in Brazil or elsewhere. So the family thought it was worth better push back this revelation, as late as possible. The silence is total.

Nothing is filtered about this death. It’s a combination of events which revives public interest and alert the authorities from several countries, on the fact that the Nazi criminal would still be on the run. Five years later, in January 1985, for the commemoration of the liberation from the Auschwitz camp,

Survivors demand justice against Mengele. Faced with this scandal, the West German governments, Israelis and Americans, pool resources consequences to find it. They decide to end it once and for all, with the hunt for Mengele. Rewards for its capture are also offered, by governments Israelis and West Germans. The New York Times, the Klarsfelds,

Or the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Germany receives a lot of pressure to finally do something, to find out if this guy is alive or dead. West Germans finally start the investigation, which should have started 15 years earlier. We could have solved this case by traditional means, consisting, as they say in my country,

To follow the money trail. And it could have been done by the German authorities, many years ago, when Mengele was still alive. From the moment they focused on the business, agricultural equipment of the Mengeles in Gunzburg, as we encouraged them to do, it took them very little time,

To discover the route that the money followed to Brazil. Everything accelerates and on May 31, 1985, the police search Hans Sedlmeier’s house. He is an old friend of Mengele, company sales manager Günzburg family and financial link since 1945, between Mengele and his family. She discovers an address book and letters,

Including one written by Bossert, informing the family of Mengele’s death. The authorities carried out a search and it didn’t take very long. While searching Madame’s room Sedlmeier is barely concealed in a secretary, they found a bunch of letters. It was a surprise for investigators and a huge surprise for Hans Sedlmeier,

Who would have said afterwards that his wife had been quite stupid, to keep these letters. The German authorities inform immediately the Brazilian police, who questions the Bosserts. These reveal the location exact from the doctor’s grave. The remains are exhumed publicly on June 6, 1985. The news has meanwhile goes around the world.

In the Embu cemetery, it’s chaos. The international press is present throughout the exhumation. Then begins a long identification process. Forensists and specialists of the whole world, come to help the Brazilian team. We have a whole protocol identification. This protocol has a series elements to identify. Gender, age, height, special signs present on bones,

Such as fractures or other signs. On the skeleton we had, we were able to note the after-effects and a pelvic fracture. We compared them with his military file, on which there was an accident in which he had fractured his pelvis. In total, and thanks to this file,

We had access to a set data that allowed us, to make a scientific cross-reference with the skeleton of Embu. These elements were sufficiently conclusive, to allow us to state with certainty, that it was indeed Mengele. In the end, these 11 forensic experts from Germany, the United States, from Israel and the Simon-Wiesenthal Center,

Have all validated that on the basis from his SS file, although some have debated it, it was with certainty of Mengele. On June 10, 1985, the only member of the Mengele family to come out of the silence, is Rolf Mengele, he publishes a statement in which,

He recognizes that the body is his father’s and admits that his death was kept secret, to cover those who protected him throughout his flight. One death confirmed but among the survivors, doubts remain. And a few years later, he is a British expert named Jeffreys, who proved, using the DNA of the Mengele family,

That the bones were without the slightest doubt those of Mengele. The survivors needed DNA confirmation, because they had seen what was there had more evil in him. If we told them there was 1 chance out of 1 million so that it’s not him, for them, they were able to get out of it,

Finding someone who matches in every way his. Most of us have knew the matter was closed, before science proves it definitively. You have to wait until 1992 to close definitively, this file opened in 1945. A business which, with a little good will on the side of the German authorities,

Should have only taken a few months. The most frustrating in the Mengele affair, he got away with it. His life was miserable for many years, but not enough. The only true justice would have been to bring him before a court. Even his execution would not have could not avenge the terror,

That he reigned at Auschwitz. But a trial would have been important. This did not happen. His death was too sweet while swimming in the ocean, stricken by a heart attack. He died at the age of 69. The peaceful death of Mengele, is a source of frustration for all those,

Who were interested in his case. The one who remains synonymous with of the greatest horrors, of Adolf Hitler’s regime, is kept in drawers from the Sao Paulo Forensic Institute. Irony of history, even his family didn’t want to decent burial, for one of his own. After war, very few Nazis of his size,

Have thus slipped between the meshes from the net of international justice. Mengele is however one of the rare exceptions. The hunt to capture the doctor from Auschwitz, was late and very insufficient. But overall, taking into account of the scale of Nazi crimes and record number of criminals involved, never achieved before in history,

Justice has been done for most authors guilty of crimes against humanity.