New documents shed light on ‘Angel of Death’ Mengele’s escape from Nazi Germany

Document recently discovered in Argentina detail how Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele fled Europe after the end of World War II and lived under various aliases in South America, according to German public broadcaster MDR.

An investigation conducted by MDR revealed for the first time that Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death” for the sadistic experiments he conducted on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp, filed a request to travel from Argentina to West Germany in 1959 using his real name.

The request came at a time when Mengele’s father was reportedly ill in Germany, suggesting that Mengele felt confident enough in his safety to use his true identity, Historian and Nazi expert Bogdan Musial told MDR. The German Foreign Office told MDR it had no information confirming such a visit, the report said.

“The documents show that several countries likely had more accurate information on Mengele than previously thought,” Musial said. Mengele’s identity was well-protected during his exile, despite significant attempts by the German government and the Mossad to capture him, he noted.

Mengele, a German SS officer and physician, was notorious for his experiments on twins, pregnant women, and individuals with physical abnormalities, often without anesthesia and with lethal results. Mengele played a central role in the selection process upon prisoners’ arrival, deciding who would be sent to forced labor and who would be killed immediately.

After the war, Mengele fled Europe in 1949 and evaded capture until his death of a heart attack in 1979.

Earlier this month, Argentina released nearly 1,850 classified documents that show how Nazi fugitives fled to the country after World War II, providing new details about the so-called ratlines that helped Nazis escape Europe after the Holocaust.

The documents, now publicly available through Argentina’s National Archive, include banking and financial transactions that show how Nazis were able to resettle in Argentina, as well as records held by Argentina’s Defense Ministry.

They include nearly 100 pages with detailed information about Mengele’s stay in Argentina and police searches for him, the report found.

For decades, organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, named after the famed Nazi hunter, have sought records related to unofficial escape routes taken by thousands of Nazis in the years after World War II. Up to 10,000 Nazis and other fascist war criminals escaped justice by fleeing to Argentina and other countries.

Several other countries in the Americas received Nazis, including Canada, the US, and Mexico. Nazis also fled to Australia, Spain, and Switzerland. In some cases, US intelligence officials used ratlines to pluck top Nazi scientists away from Soviet orbits.

Up to 5,000 Nazis are said to have settled in Argentina, including Mengele and Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann, who was captured by Israeli agents in 1960 and executed two years later.