JAKARTA - On May 24, 1943, the Jewish camp at Auschwitz, Poland, received a new doctor, Josef Mengele. He is a doctor obsessed with human trials. Mengele was nicknamed the "Angel of Death."
Upon arriving at Auschwitz, Mengele was 32 years old. One of the experiments that sexized him was Mengele's tendency to study twins by dissecting them.
Citing History, Mengele was born in Bavaria on 16 March 1911. Mengele studied philosophy under Alfred Rosenberg, whose racial theories greatly influenced him.
In 1934, as a member of the Nazi Party, Mengele joined the research staff at the Institute of Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. Prior to his arrival to Auschwitz, Mengele had published three articles.
One of them was his dissertation at the University of Munich's Institute of Anthropology entitled Racial-Morphological Examination of the Anterior Portion of the Lower Jaw in Four Racial Groups. His medical dissertation was published in 1938 and titled Genealogical Studies in the Cases of Cleft Lip-Jaw-Palate.
The dissertation was a precursor to his work on genetic abnormalities in twins at Auschwitz. Another study entitled Hereditary Transmission of Fistulae Auris was published in connection with research conducted on the Lenz-Vershuer principle of "irregular dominant hereditary processes."
Mengele's arrival to AuschwitzBut Mengele's route to the post of professor was cut short in 1938-1939, when he began his military experience by spending six months with a specially trained mountain infantry regiment. In 1940 Mengele was placed in the reserve medical corps.
After that Mengele served for three years with the Waffen SS unit. During this period he was injured and medically and declared unfit for battle.
Having acquitted himself brilliantly in the presence of enemies during the East Campaign, Mengele was promoted to captain. According to Dr. Hans Münch, a colleague of Mengele's at Auschwitz, Mengele arrived at the camp in a privileged position.
Mengele was the recipient of a series of medals, including the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary of Nazi German forces during World War II. It seems that Mengele also chose Auschwitz because there was an opportunity to continue his research.
According to Lifton's source, The Nazi Doctors, Mengele did receive financial support for his research at the Auschwitz camp. Reports of support for continuing his professional career in genetics appear in another book, And the Violins Stopped Playing written by Alexander Ramati.
Most Jewish doctors and prisoners testified that Mengele was everywhere. There are stories about his screening activities and his medical involvement.
Mengele's CrimesCiting a Jewish Virtual Library report, the Frankfurt Court charged him with a 'horrific crime' committed alone or with others "intentionally and with bloodthirsty."
Those crimes include crimes of humanity by screening, lethal injection, shooting, beating and other forms of intentional killing. Mengele was involved in all aspects, particularly in the experiment on twins, according to members of the C.A.N.D.L.E.S., the twin brothers who survived the experiment.
Mengele experimented with Jews under the guise of medical treatment. Injecting or ordering others to inject thousands of Jews with everything from gasoline to chloroform.
Of the thousands of children involved, only about 200 were alive when the camp was liberated by the Soviet Army on January 27, 1945. These children are the ones so often featured in documentaries.
Those who are still alive continue to seek information about what Mengele has done to him. Files related to Mengele's research on them have never been found and what has been done to them remains a mystery until now.
Escape from prisonMengele managed to escape from prison after the war. First by working as an agricultural officer in Bavaria.
He then went to South America and became a Paraguayan citizen in 1959. Mengele then moved to Brazil, where he met another former Nazi party member, Wolfgang Gerhard.
In 1985, a team of multinational forensic experts traveled to Brazil to search for Mengele. They stated that a man named Gerhard -- but believed to be Mengele -- had died of a stroke while swimming in 1979.
But many doubted this and considered Mengele to be still on the loose. Until now Mengele's condition is still considered a mystery.
*Read more information about WORLD HISTORY or read other interesting writings from Putri Ainur Islam.
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