There was no way that Karl and Walburga could have guesses what their oldest son Josef Mengele was born that he would turn out to be such an evil person. As a child he well mannered, intelligent and popular. His early years in college he studied philosophy and medicine. By the end of his time in college Mengele had stared to be influenced by his peers and their involvement with the Nazis movement. Excited to be involved he quickly joined the steel helmets in 1931. With his interest in the Nazis movement growing, he changed directions of his studies. He began to focus on anthropology, paleontology as will as medicine. He also became interested in genetics that would reveal reasons for human imperfection. At the same time Germans were in belief their superiority.

Even with all of his interest in this field, his professors Hans Grebe stated, “ There was nothing in his personality to suggest that he would do what he did” as a Dr. at Auschwitz. Also as a student he attended many of Dr. Ernest Rudin’s lectures that soma lives simply were not worth living and should be removed from the population. By 1934 Hitler took control of the steel helmets organization, which Mengele had become a member of. However he forced to resign when he developed a kidney ailment.

After five years at the university he received his P.H.D. In 1936 he passed his state medical examination and started working in Leipzig at the university medical clinic. The following year he became a research assistant at the university of Frankfort under Prof. Otmar Freiherr V Von Versschuer, whose field of genetics was supported by Hitler. The Same year he received his medical degree, at age 28. He started hid military training with the German army.

In 1940 Mengele was part of the Walfen SS group. He proved to be an excellent soldier. As a lieutenant he earned the Iron Cross First Class, Black Badge for the Wounded and the Medal for the care of the German People. By the time he made Captain he was in the resettlement Office in Berlin. His next assignment would be the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, in 1943.

Dr. Mengele was soon nicknamed the “Angel of Death” at Auschwitz for the manner in which he carried out the process of eliminating the Jews. When one of the blocks became infected with lice he simply sent all 750 women to be gassed. Possibly one of the most disturbing thing Mengele did was the experiments he carried out on the prisoners, various diseases, but especially on twins, age 2 years and up.

His experiments included blood test, x rays, sketches of each for comparison. From there his experiments became more bizarre. He would inject chemicals into their eyes in an attempt to change the color then injected chloroform into their hearts killing them. His experiments on twins were supposedly to find the genetic cause for the birth of twins. He did experiments on about 180 twins. When sending twins to his lad he would use a truck painted with a Red Cross emblem, sometimes he even used his own car. Amazingly some twins survivors that were quit young remember him as gentle, friendly, even gave them chocolates, and they called him “ Uncle Mengele”. How ever, the older ones realized him deception. As for the children he drew a line on the wall at 5feet, those that their heads couldn’t reach it were immediately sent to the gas chambers.

Some survivors have clear memories of him standing in crisp uniform, shiny black boots, his thumb resting on his pistol belt, he flicked his cane that he held in his gloved hand and waved them to their deaths. Near the end of the war to help cut expenses Mengele calmly led all children into the ovens – threw them into burning pits.

On February 11, 1945 as Auschwitz was being liberated Dr. Josef Mengele used a disguise of an infantryman and simply walked out of camp. He was later caught again in Munich and held as a POW. Not realizing who he really was he escaped again. Determined to build a life for himself elsewhere, he headed to Argentina. There were large groups of sympathizers for the Nazi movement. Also his father Karl had a manufacturing business for farming equipment. In Argentina he spent thirty-five carefree years with his wife Martha using many different aliases.

On a sunny afternoon in1975 while swimming, Mengele suffered a massive stroke. He was pronounced dead on shore. In the 1980’s many investigators were still searching for former Nazi’ uncovered an unmarked grave marked “Wolfgang Gerhard” at Embu. His family finally admitted how they had protected him over the years, then turned over their letters and diaries to the authorities. It wasn’t until a DNA testing in 1992 that his death was truly documented. Bringing to an end of the search for this evil killer.