Joseph Mengele

  Joseph Mengele had been a well-educated man, having earned a Ph.D. in physical anthropology and a doctoral degree in genetic medicine. Initially, he did research on twins at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. The same year he joined the Nazi Party. He served as a medical expert for the Race and Settlement and Central Immigration offices. After returning from the Eastern Front as a medical officer in 1943, he was soon promoted to SS captain and landed up at Auschwitz.

The moniker "Angel of Death" for his contributions to the prisoner "selections". Several thousand Jewish and Gypsy twins were used by Mengele for experiments. At the time, twins were seen as genetic copies, allowing for the study of the effects of behavior rather than genetics (thus any deformity or social condition was a result of genetics). Many of his victims were used for his study of heterochromia (he collected their eyes to study.pigmentation as well as their limbs), Noma, the racial inferiority of the Jewish, amputations, blood transfusions, diseases -- nothing was off-limits. After their deaths, he dissected the children. He used many of these experiments to justify the racial inferiority of the non-Aryans. His assistant later published a book on his encounters with Mengele.


The twins whom he selected were saved from the gas chambers and kept in separate areas with better food and treatment. Despite these amenities, they were the same, if not worse off than the other prisoners. They were isolated and tortured-- of around 3000 twins, only 200 survived.
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In January 1945, as the Soviets approached, he fled Auschwitz. He was later captured and released by the US, who did not who he was. Mengele took refuge in Bavaria. As he traveled from country to country to evade justice, he ended up in Brazil under the alias Wolfgang Gerhard. In 1979, he died from a stroke he had while swimming at a vacation resort. His identity was only uncovered in 1992 when his grave was exhumed and DNA tested.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/josef-mengele
https://www.history.com/news/nazi-twin-experiments-mengele-eugenics