Switzerland's intelligence agency has announced it will finally open secret files on notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, amid longstanding claims that the 'Angel of Death' evaded capture on Swiss soil. With a flick of his gloved hands, Mengele acted as the supreme arbiter of life and death at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where more than 1.1 million people — including one million Jews — were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers.
Mengele's Role at Auschwitz
It was Mengele who largely decided the fate of the camp's inmates, with those surviving the initial selection still at risk of being chosen for his sickening medical experiments aimed at creating an Aryan master race. After the war, Mengele found himself on the Allied commanders' most-wanted list, prompting him to assume a false identity. He used his new name to secure Red Cross travel permits — intended for thousands of displaced persons — from the Swiss consulate in Genoa, northern Italy.
Escape to South America
Mengele fled to South America in 1949 and was never found, despite extensive efforts by private investigators and the Israeli secret service, Mossad. DNA tests in 1992 proved beyond doubt that a man who had died in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming in Brazil was indeed Mengele. However, in the years since his death, evidence has emerged that the wanted Nazi travelled to Switzerland, possibly on more than one occasion.
Evidence of Swiss Visits
Historians previously discovered that Mengele enjoyed a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps with his son Rolf in 1956, three years before an international arrest warrant was issued. Swiss historian Regula Bochsler recently found that in June 1961, the Austrian intelligence service warned that Mengele might be back on Swiss soil travelling under a fake identity. Other evidence includes documents showing that Mengele's wife applied for permanent residency and rented an apartment in Zurich, close to the airport. Police files from 1961 indicate the flat was put under surveillance, with Mrs. Mengele seen driving her VW car alongside an unknown man.
Historical Investigation and Legal Battle
Historian Bochsler has questioned whether Mengele, feeling the heat of an international warrant, fled back to Europe and sought refuge in Switzerland. In 2019, she applied to the Swiss Federal Archive to unseal the federal police files it holds on Mengele but was refused on national security grounds and to protect the Nazi criminal's extended family. Last year, fellow historian Gerard Wettstein was similarly turned down, with officials telling him the files would remain shut until 2071. However, after taking the Swiss authorities to court — thanks to a crowdfund-backed challenge — the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (SFIS) said the files will finally be released, though they have not specified exactly when.
Concerns Over Redactions
In a statement earlier this month, the SFIS said: 'The appellant will be granted access to the file, subject to conditions and requirements yet to be defined.' Bochsler is concerned that when the files are finally made public, they could be heavily redacted. She told BBC News: 'I don't trust [the authorities] at all. I fear it will look like the Epstein files. Why have these Mengele files been closed for so long?' Wettstein also fears what the files may contain — or not, as the case may be. 'Maybe we will never get to the real truth... but maybe we can have at least a clearer idea,' he added.
Background on Josef Mengele
Dr. Josef Mengele was the fearsome Nazi officer who greeted doomed arrivals at Auschwitz. With a flick of his gloved hands, the supreme arbiter of life and death would consign terrified prisoners to work or to death in the gas chambers. But many also became guinea pigs upon Mengele's operating table as he pursued a berserk quest to clone blue-eyed Aryan supermen. Captivated by oddities, victims of his medical experiments were chosen based on different eye colors, growth anomalies such as a clubfoot or a hunchback, giantism or dwarfism, twins, and gypsies. He also singled out pregnant women. A choice 'specimen' he sent to his lab for study was the head of a 12-year-old boy he was going to dissect. Twins held a particular fascination for him, and it is estimated he examined around 3,000 — but only 100 pairs survived. Mengele had a doctorate in medicine from Frankfurt University but used his knowledge to a sickening degree at Auschwitz, where he performed experiments as an SS physician from 1943 to 1945. The so-called Angel of Death was on the Allied commanders' most-wanted list from 1944, but he escaped to South America and was never found. He died in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming, with DNA tests 13 years later proving his identity beyond doubt.
