FREE ESSAY ON JOSEF MENGELE

JOSEF MENGELE

Fifteen years ago the world let out a sigh of relief with the discovery of 208 bones and a
few rags. For over forty years survivors of the Nazi death camps known as Auschwitz were
haunted by the vision of the handsome, well dressed man with a caring smile who pointed
his white-gloved finger either left or right deciding who lived (at least for the moment)
and who died. Those who passed this man and survived have always remembered the man known
as the Angel of Death. These are the people who question the identification of these
bones as those of SS doctor Josef Mengele.
Josef Mengele was the eldest son of Karl and Walburga Mengele of Gunzburg, Bavaria. Karl
Mengele ran a machine tools factory and often put his eldest son Beppo, as he was known
then, in charge of overseeing the transport of all goods to and from the factory (Drekel
29). Beppo was always happy when the transports arrived and years later an older Beppo
still delighted at the arrival of trains and their cargoes, but at a different railway
stop (30). Mengele's childhood was one of privilege. His family was upper middle class
and Beppo was well liked by the townspeople. Most townspeople recall an innocence and
sweetness to him (31).
Josef Mengele was a promising student and went to Munich to study racial theories under
the "philosopher" of National Socialism Alfred Rosenburg (THHP par.2). He then moved to
Frankfurt-am-Main to receive his medical degree and study under Otmar von Verschuer.
Verschuer was the director of the Institute for Racial Hygiene at the University of
Frankfurt and is who began Mengele with his studies on genetic engineering (par. 2). By
the time Mengele received his medical degree he was a member of both the National
Socialist Party and the SS (par.2). Mengele did serve in battle and although there is
little mention of the details of his service it is known that he was wounded while on the
Eastern front (Astor 28). Mengele was sent back to Germany to recover and was awarded an
Iron Cross First Degree, Iron Cross Second Degree and the standard decoration for service
against the Red armies (28). It was after he recovered that Mengele volunteered as camp
doctor at an installation in the southwest of Poland known as Auschwitz (29).
Dr. Mengele took his new position with the stated mission to perform research on human
genetics. His mentor, Verschuer, had secured a grant through the German Research Council
to fund Mengele's work (Lynott screen 2). Dr. Mengele wanted to create a Germanic
super-race by unlocking genetic engineering secrets and devising methods for eradicating
inferior gene strands from the human population (screen 2). His most passionate interest
soon became twins. Twins were the perfect specimens because one twin could act as the
control while the other was endlessly experimented on. This passion is what drove Mengele
to the arrival ramps at Auschwitz. In just over a year that Mengele was at the camp he is
known to be present for at least 74 arrivals (Gilbert 582), but with 70 to 90 percent of
new arrivals being sent immediately to the gas chamber after stepping off the train
(Lynott screen 1) who knows how many other arrivals Mengele was at that no one has
survived to recall.
Mengele's selection process was very systematic. Young men and women aged eighteen to
thirty-five that looked strong were sent to the left - to slave labor. The rest,
consisting of the old, the very young children and their mothers, the sick, and the weak
were sent to the right - to the gas chamber (Astor 55). Mothers with very young children
and mothers with children who had died in transport, as many did, were sent to the gas
chamber because, as Mengele himself said, "mothers won't work well if they know their
children are dead," (60). Mengele selected certain people from the new arrivals for his
own personal group. Anyone with certain abnormalities, such as dwarfs, midgets,
hunchbacks along with other birth defects, and twins were sent to a special block where
Mengele could perform his research (THHP par.7). The building in which Mengele housed his
specimens was Block 10 - the Zoo, as it came to be called.
The twins became known as Mengele's Children. They received certain privileges such as
being allowed to keep their own clothes and their hair, the rest of the inmates were
stripped and had their heads shaved. The twins were housed in their own compound with
boys and girls lodged separately (Dekel 57). They were spared the beatings and punishment
often received by other prisoners and the twins were sometimes even given better food
rations (58). Many of the twins recall Dr. Mengele as very kind and remember him giving
them treats and candy (Hizme 74). Irene Hizme, who was one of Mengele's Children summed
up the feelings of almost all his specimen's saying, "he [Mengele] was our savior and our
demon," (74). But Mengele's Children received a much worse fate than most other prisoners
- the endless experiments. The children soon learned that the good treatment they were
receiving was only to keep them healthy for these experiments. Mengele's experiments on
the twins are only partially known. Those who suffered the worst of his research took his
actions to their grave (Josef Mengele par.5). Of the 3000 twins studied by Mengele only
200 survived, and those who survived say there were some experiments performed that they
will never talk about (Dekel 70).
Once the twins were selected, they, like all new inmates, were showered and branded with
a numbered tattoo (Dekel 57). They were then asked to complete a questionnaire detailing
their background, health, demographic information, and all their physical characteristics
- their age, weight, height, eye and hair color were very important (59). Each day the
twins were awakened at 6 o'clock for roll call when they would each be called for a
number of experiments (61). Almost every twin was subject to daily blood withdrawals and
X rays (Josef Mengele par.2). These were quite painful and usually led to fainting and on
occasion even death, but these were the experiments the children looked forward to. They
knew of the children that went for surgery and returned paralyzed or didn't return at
all.
Dr. Mengele would often perform experimental surgery without using anesthesia. He would
remove organs and limbs, sterilize the female twins and castrate the males, he even
attempted to change the sex of some twins (Dekel 70). Moshe Offer remembers, of her twin
brother Tibi, that one surgery on his spine left him paralyzed, then his sexual organs
were taken out, and on the fourth operation he did not return (71). Moshe is lucky to
have survived his brother's death; as a rule, if one twin dies the other is killed. This
would allow for an autopsy of both bodies simultaneously (Astor 96). Alex Dekel recalls a
stomach operation in which pieces of the specimens stomach were removed and another were
the heart was removed without anesthesia (Dekel 70). Many children also died from brain
operations or were paralyzed by spinal operations. If the specimen were to die, their
organs would be sent to Verschuer for further examination. There were a few cases were
the head of a victim was sent (Astor 101). As cruel and painful as these operations were,
the result was often a fairly quick death - other experiments did not have the same
effect.
The most notorious of Mengele's research was with eye coloration. Mengele wanted to
create the perfect Aryan race - children with striking features possessing blond hair and
blue eyes. To do this, he needed to understand the genetics behind eye coloration.
Mengele would try to alter the color of the twins' eyes by introducing different fluids.
He would either inject these fluids with a shot into the eye or by using eye drops (Dekel
65). He tried to inject dyes, methylene blue, bleach and other agents into the eyes. Of
course the result was only pain and infection, in one case blindness, and in one case
death (THHP par.8). Hedvah and Leah Stern remember, "One day, we were given eye-drops.
Afterwards, we could not see for several days. We thought the Nazis hade made us blind"
(Dekel 66). His obsession with eyes led to his collection. There are eyewitness accounts
of an entire laboratory wall that was covered with human eyes "pinned like butterflies"
(Astor 98).
Mengele also subjected his twins to experiments studying infectious diseases. He would
inject lethal germs into his twins to study their reactions (Josef Mengele par.3).
Mengele injected typhus and tuberculosis, along with other fatal diseases, just to see
how long it would take for the patients to succumb to the disease (Lynott screen 3). Once
a specimen died, through any means, their remains were taken to Mengele's pathology lab.
The final step of all Mengele's experiments was always a post-mortem examination (THHP
par.6). In some reported cases, the post-mortem exam was administered with the child
still alive (Gilbert 688).
Mengele did not spend all his energy on the twins. He was also very interested in
midgets, dwarfs, hunchbacks, and any other abnormalities. Mengele conducted most of the
same tests on these specimens as he had his twins, but the people with these
abnormalities suffered other tortures. In the case of the Ovitch family, a group of seven
dwarfs and three children of normal height, Mengele made the family perform circus-type
acts fully nude in front of a large gathering of SS officers and camp guards - some were
sexually abused (Gilbert 689).
As a doctor at Auschwitz, Mengele rarely offered treatment to those who were sick.
Mengele would often examine the hospital facilities and infirmaries at Auschwitz. For
prisoners, illness involved great risk - if weak and ill they served no labor purpose to
the Nazi's. During Mengele's examinations he would require the inhabitants to rise for
roll call. Anyone to weak to stand for this was sent to the gas chamber. His treatment
for any disease that might cause an epidemic was simple. If even only one prisoner showed
symptoms of a contagious disease every inmate in that barrack would be gassed and the
barrack disinfected (Astor 75). He was known to do this on over thirty occasions.
Especially disturbing to Mengele was typhus. It seemed Mengele had an almost phobic
reaction to symptoms that even hinted at typhus (Astor 75). It is said that during the
summer of 1943 Mengele himself came down with either typhoid or typhus and spent a month
recuperating (75). Upon his return, Mengele was determined to eradicate all sources of
infection. This led to more mass gassing. Mengele sent these groups to death because they
scared him, but there is one group of people Mengele actually is said to have enjoyed
sending to the gas chambers.
Pregnant women of Auschwitz had the most to fear of Dr. Mengele. Women became aware of
Mengele's attitude and started to hide their pregnancies (Astor 80). Pregnancy at
Auschwitz meant certain death to both mother and child, if the child were even given a
chance to be born. Mengele tried to boast his "humanitarianism" in having these women
killed. He would say how Auschwitz had no facilities for newborns (Dekel 80). A child was
allowed to be born in the case of one girl who eluded Mengele with her pregnancy for
seven months. To punish the mother for tricking him, Mengele bound her breasts so she
could not nurse the child. The mother laid in torment listening to her child's cries of
hunger for days until a prisoner on the hospital staff helped her administer a strong
dose of morphine to kill the child (Astor 82-83). Other prisoner hospital workers began
administering abortions to women before Mengele could learn of their pregnancy. In cases
where the pregnancy was too far along for abortion the child would be killed at birth and
the mother told the child was stillborn (Astor 81). These abortions were extremely
painful. There was no anesthesia administered and the only instruments were the two hands
of the nurse or doctor administering the abortion (81).
By the time the Russians liberated Auschwitz Menegle had disappeared. He was spotted at
Mauthausen shortly after, but when it seemed the Russians would soon control that death
camp also he left his SS uniform behind and took on the role of a soldier of the
Wehrmacht (Dekel 102). The unit later surrendered to American troops and Mengele became a
prisoner of war. At this time he began using an extra set of identification papers a
friend had given him under the name of Fritz Ulmann. Mengele changed the papers to read
Fritz Hollman and was released from the POW camp by soldiers who saw no evidence he had
been in the SS (103). After this, Mengele began a long trail that no one could ever quite
catch up with.
The cruelty of Mengele's actions will never be understood by anyone who was not a part of
it. There is no way to describe in a few pages the terrible physical and psychological
torment Dr. Mengele's "patients" endured. Unfortunately, all of his experiments and
torment left the world with no practical information. Mengele was quite unsuccessful in
his goal to unlock the secrets of genetic engineering. As surviving Mengele subject Alex
Dekel states, "I have never accepted the fact that Mengele himself believed he was doing
serious work - not from the slipshod way he went about it. He was only exercising his
power" (Lynott screen 3). It is almost impossible to imagine any person capable of
committing such cruelty and having such disregard for human life, yet it is necessary to
strive to understand what motivates such a person to do these things. Unbelievably,
genocide and ethnic cleansing are still taking place in the world today. At least six
million people died because the world turned its head to what the Nazis were doing. How
long can this continue.
Works Cited
Astor, Gerald. The Last Nazi: the Life and Times of Dr. Josef Mengele. New York: Fine,
1985.
Dekel, Sheila Cohn and Lucette Matalon Lagnado. Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele

and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz. New York: Morrow, 1991.
Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World
War. 
New York: Holt, 1985.
Hizme, Irene. Interview. When They Came to Take My Father: Voices from the Holocaust. 
Ed. Rachel Hager and Leora Kahn. New York: Arcade, 1996. 72-75.
The Holocaust History Project. 18 May 1999. The Holocaust History Project (THHP). 
30 October 2000. *http://www.holocaust-history.org/short essays/josef-mengele.shtml*.
"Josef Mengele and Experimentation on Human Twins at Auschwitz." TwinSource. 
1 Nov. 2000. *http://www.modcult.brown.edu/Students/angell/mengele.html*.
Lynott, Douglas. Josef Mengele: Angel of Death. 30 October 2000. 
*http://www.crimelibrary.com/mengele/main.htm*.
Works Consulted
Dawidowicz, Lucy S. The War Against the Jews 1933-1945. New York: Bantam, 1975.
Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the
Holocaust.
New York: Knopf, 1996.
Marrus, Michael R. The Holocaust in History. New York: Penguin, 1987.