About dr. josef mengele
Known as “The Angel of Death,” Dr. Josef Mengele was the chief doctor at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War.
Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 into a wealthy Bavarian family, with a strict Catholic upbringing. His parents were Karl and Walburga Mengele. He had two younger brothers, Karl and Alois. His nickname was "Beppo." In 1926 He was diagnosed with Osteomyelitis. He graduated from the Gymnasium in 1930. In 1931 he joined the Stahlhelm (Steel Helmets), an extreme right-wing and antisemitic organization.
In 1935 he was awarded his PhD from the University of Munich. He went to the University of Frankfurt to study medicine. In May 1937 he joined the NSDAP (his member number was #5574974). In the year 1938 he was admitted to the SS in May. That same year in July, Mengele was awarded medical degree by the University of Frankfurt. Also in October he started basic training with the Wehrmacht ( it lasted 3 months).
In July 1939 Josef Mengele married Irene Schoenbein. In the year 1940 he joined the medical corps of the Waffen SS. In August he was appointed an Untersturmführer. In June of 1941 he was sent to the Ukraine as part of the Waffen SS; and received the Iron Cross, second class. January 1942 Mengele joined the Waffen SS's Viking Division medical corps; and earned the Iron Cross, First Class by pulling two soldiers out of a burning tank while under enemy fire; also awarded the Black Badge for the Wounded and the Medal for the Care of the German People wounded. At the end of 1942 Mengele reposted to the Race and Resettlement Office, this time in its headquarters in Berlin, and was appointed to Haupsturmführer (the captain).
He arrived at Auschwitz on May 30, 1943. Mengele selected incoming Jews for labor or extermination in the gas chambers and conducted medical experiments on inmates, infants, young twins, dwarfs and those with genetic abnormalities. Whenever more of these Jews came to the camp, Mengele was always there, ready to decide the fate of the people. This is how he earned the name "The Angel of Death.' With a flick of the wrist, Mengele decided if a prisoner would go into the work camps, or be condemned to the gas chambers. He was also responsible for the fate and the selections of the women's camp. On March 11, 1944 his son Rolf, was born. And then sometime in the middle of January 1945 he fled Auschwitz.
After he fled Auschwitz Mengele arrived at Gross-Rosen camp; then left before Russians liberated it on February 11, 1945. He was spotted at Mauthausen, and captured as prisoner and held in a POW camp near Munich. Mengele received papers from fellow prisoner, Dr. Fritz Ulmann; for vanity reasons had not gotten blood type tattooed beneath arm, American Army did not realize he was a member of the SS and released him.
In 1949 he escaped to Argentina. In 1954 Mengele's father came to visit him. Also in 1954 he divorced Irene. He changed his name officially to Josef Mengele in 1956. He married his brother Karl's widow- Martha Mengele in 1958.
On June 7 1959 West Germany issued its first arrest warrant for Mengele. That same year he moved to Paraguay. The Universities of Frankfurt and Munich withdrew his academic degrees in 1964. Dr. Josef Mengele was believed to have died on February 7, 1979 on the beach at Bertioga in Embu, Brazil while suffering a stroke, while he was swimming in the ocean.
