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| Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 in Gunzburg, Germany. His parents were Karl and Walburga Mengele. While growing up Josef's nickname was Beppo. Josef was the oldest of his two other brothers, Karl and Alois. As a young man Josef was admired as a bright ambitious student. His teachers would often compliment him on his knowledge of conduct and punctuality. When Josef got old enough Josef's dad wanted Josef to take over the family factory. While growing up Josef wished of someday of having a career in science and anthropology. In 1930 Josef graduated from Gunzburg. He passed his college exam well enough to be accepted to the university of Munich, Bavaria. |
| He enrolled in philosophy and medicine. Josef goal was to unlock the secrets of human genetics. In 1935 Josef received a PhD from Munich university. In May 1938 Josef was admitted to the SS. Professor Hans Grebe once stated "There was nothing in Josef's personality to suggest that he'd do what he did." July 1938 Josef received a medical award from Frankfurt university. In January 1942 Josef married Irene Schoenbein. In 1941Josef received the Iron Cross second class. In 1942 deep within the Soviet lines he rescued two German soldiers from a burning tank while being shot at. He received the Iron Cross first class. In May1943 Mengele left Berlin for Auschwitz. On May 30, 1943 Josef arrived at Auschwitz. On March 11, 1944 Rolf Mengele Josef's son was born. |
| Shortly after Josef arrived at Auschwitz he broke his hip
when he crashed on his motorcycle. When the prisoners got off the
train Josef would be waiting for them. A flick of Josef's cane could
mean death or forced labor. A flick to the right meant work. A flick
to the left meant gas chambers. Josef's main goal or objective was to
create the perfect Aryan race. Josef Mengele was responsible for
killing thousands of Jews a day. Josef made a game out of walking
the children to the chimneys. He called it "Walking to the
chimney." Children would often be given X-rays for any broken
limbs. Then Josef would walk in and give them some candy, then he would
inject them for his experiments. At Auschwitz Josef was given the
nickname "Angel of Death." Josef's goal was to perform
experiments on human genetics. Josef was the only doctor at
Auschwitz to have served in the army.
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| Often when the gas chambers were full Josef would order
pits to be dug, filled with gasoline, and set aflame. Then the Jews
would be pushed into the fires and burned to death. One specific
event was ten trucks drove up to the pits with children in the them.
The trucks backed up to the pits and threw the children into the
flames. Then officers would go around with sticks and push the ones
that got out back into the flames. Josef was allowed to operate on
whoever he wanted whenever he wanted. Josef and another doctor loved
to experiment on the twins. Some survivors said "Dr. Mengele
just didn't work at Auschwitz, he was Auschwitz." The people
Josef liked working on the most was twins, dwarves, and people with
deformalities. Other doctors would hold the Jews down while Josef would
inject dye into their eyes. This often caused patients to go blind
or have massive pains. One of Mengele's experiments was to inject
diseases into twins to see what it did to them when they were alive and to
see what happened to them when they were dead. Often Josef would
remove the eyes of some of his patients and pin them to the walls of his
office.
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| One of Mengele's other experiments was to put Jews into a
revolving gas chamber, which represented flying at high altitudes,
to see what the body did. Prisoners would often throw themselves
against the walls to die a less painful death. Another gruesome
experiment of Josef's was to inject chloroform into a child's heart.
Or sewing twins together to try and make Siamese twins. No one knew
why Josef became so mean or so ruthless. Josef died before he could
be interviewed and asked why he did what he did. Josef left
Auschwitz on January 17, 1945. The Soviet Union was advancing towards
Berlin. Josef and Irene went to Gunzburg. Josef visited his
parents. He also saw his 8 month old son Rolf. Then on Nov. 6
he returned to Auschwitz. Then he fled westward with a retreating
bunch of Wehrmacht soldiers. With them he traded his SS uniform for
a Wehrmacht's. On May 2, 1945 the same day Hitler shot
himself, Josef joined a field hospital unit. Mengele was captured by
allied forces and taken to a city called Ingolstadt.
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| He then escaped and found a farmer with two bicycles. He borrowed one of the bikes and rode to Donauworth. Josef stashed his I.D. papers inside the handlebar of the bike and used his friend's I.D. papers. But when Josef returned the bike to the farmer he forgot his I.D. papers and was forced to live under the name Fritz Ulmann. In 1949 Josef escaped to Argentina. In 1954 Josef received a visit from his dad, Karl Mengele. Also that same year Josef and Irene got a divorce. In 1958 Josef married his brother's widow Martha Mengele. In South Africa Josef was scared to live by himself, so he bought half of a Sierra Negro Farm. Josef and the other people that lived there didn't get along real well. Mengele became paranoid, he thought that they'd turn him in. In 1972 Josef became very ill. It was later discovered that Josef had swallowed a lot of hair and the hair was blocking his intestines. In the hospital Mengele was almost discovered. But his friend told the doctor a lie about Josef's identity. |
| When Josef got out of the hospital he started writing letter s home. But he used code names like Ro for Rolf and Ma for Martha. In 1973 Josef asked Rolf if he'd like to visit. After 4 years Rolf decided to take the long trip to Brazil. On Nov. 9,1970 the president of West Germany didn't know what had become of Josef. So he issued a $50,000 and$10,000,000 reward for the capture of Josef Mengele. They said "Josef is to good for death." Josef became the number one wanted man everywhere. When people mentioned Josef's name they were either left in awe or scared to death. Some even said that anyone who followed Josef was almost certain to die. On January 17, 1985 a group of Auschwitz survivors gathered in Jerusalem to testify against Josef. |
| For the next four nights the airwaves were filled with images of the survivors. On May 31,1985 houses were raided and a lifelong friend of Josef's was captured and interviewed. Through letters of other people they captured they were able to find where Josef was buried. After DNA tests they confirmed that it was Josef Mengele. On January 7, 1979 Josef went for a swim off the beach of Bertioga in Embu, Brazil. While Josef was swimming he had a stroke, he started to drown but was saved by some other people. But they weren't soon enough. Josef Mengele the "Angel Of Death" was dead. On Josef's headstone it read Wolfgang Gerhard instead of Josef Mengele. It wasn't until the mid 1980's until people discovered Josef's death. His body was later dug up for scientific research. |
| Well now you know all about the life and troubles of Josef Mengele. Now you know about how he died and nobody knew about it for nearly 6 years. You know about what happened to him while he was running from authority for nearly thirty years of his life. |
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Nick Guindon 7th Social Studies Rossville Jr. High Holocaust Project 2004 |
