Wikipedia (not always trustworthy)
"
Josef Mengele (
[ˈjoːzɛf ˈmɛŋələ] (
listen); 16 March 1911 – 7 February 1979), also known as the
Angel of Death (German:
Todesengel)
[1] was a German
Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician during
World War II. He is mainly remembered for his actions at the
Auschwitz concentration camp, where he performed
deadly experiments on prisoners, and was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be
killed in the gas chambers[a] and was one of the doctors who administered the gas. With
Red Army troops sweeping through
Poland, Mengele was transferred 280 kilometres (170 mi) from Auschwitz to the
Gross-Rosen concentration camp on 17 January 1945, just 10 days before the arrival of the
Soviet forces at Auschwitz.
Before the war, Mengele had received doctorates in
anthropology and medicine, and began a career as a researcher. He joined the
Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1938. He was assigned as a battalion medical officer at the start of World War II, then transferred to the
Nazi concentration camps service in early 1943 and assigned to Auschwitz, where he saw the opportunity to conduct genetic research on human subjects. His experiments focused primarily on twins, with no regard for the health or safety of the victims.
[3][4]
After the war, Mengele fled to
South America. He sailed to
Argentina in July 1949, assisted by a
network of former SS members. He initially lived in and around
Buenos Aires, then fled to
Paraguay in 1959 and
Brazil in 1960, all the while being sought by
West Germany,
Israel, and
Nazi hunters such as
Simon Wiesenthal, who wanted to bring him to trial. Mengele eluded capture in spite of extradition requests by the West German government and clandestine operations by the Israeli intelligence agency
Mossad. He drowned in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming off the coast of
Bertioga, and was buried under the false name of Wolfgang Gerhard.
[2] His remains were disinterred and positively identified by forensic examination in 1985."