New book tells harrowing story of Auschwitz’s ‘Angel of Death’
Secrets of how Josef Mengele evaded capture for his crimes
Gregory Peck was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the sadistic Dr Josef Mengele at the 1979 Academy Awards.
In the event, he walked away empty handed for his role in The Boys from Brazil but unbeknownst to everyone at the star-studded event in Los Angeles, the real Angel of Death – for decades the world’s most wanted Nazi war criminal – had died two months before.
Mengele cheated the hangman when he suffered a stroke and died while swimming near Sao Paulo in Brazil the same year.
For the SS officer’s victims and the Nazi-hunters who had pursued Mengele across the world, it was a cruel blow. But for the rest of the world, the film raised the spectre of the doctor of Auschwitz, who was portrayed by Peck as a sinister figure in an immaculate white suit.
In Auschwitz, Mengele conducted genetic research on human subjects, focusing primarily on twins with little regard for the health of the victims, most of whom suffered terribly at his hands.
A new book, published in Brazil in Portuguese, recounts how Mengele was able to evade the tentacles of the West German state, the US government, Nazi-hunters like Simon Wiesenthal and even Mossad, the Israeli secret service which tracked down Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Final Solution.
Tropical Bavaria, by the Brazilian journalist Betina Anton, tells how the Nazi was protected by a tight-knit group of Germans and Austrians who lived near Sao Paulo. The book will be published next year in English.
An international warrant was issued in the 1950s for Mengele’s arrest and a bounty totalling $3.7 million (£2.9m) was placed on his head, but he remained one step ahead of the law.
Anton, who comes from German descendants who emigrated to Brazil, was taught at kindergarten by Liselotte Bossert. Little did she know that her friendly teacher was a close friend of Mengele.
“She was one of the few people who really knew that Mengele was Mengele here in Brazil,” she told The Sunday Post. “He was protected by a very small circle here in Brazil.”
Bossert, a teacher at a German school, became a friend of Mengele despite being fully aware of his background. She secretly organised his burial under a false name in 1979.
“I know that Mengele came to my school. I spoke to someone who said one day an old man came to the school to pick up my school teacher from a party. It was a shock. There were people at the school who were Jewish. They were outraged when they discovered that a teacher had protected him,” Anton said.
A journalist for the Brazilian Globo TV news channel, Anton approached the families of Mengele’s circle but most refused to talk and relatives threatened her.
She got access to the police documents about his contacts in Brazil plus letters which the Nazi wrote to his family and friends in Europe. She said in Mengele’s letters he did not mention the Second World War or events at Auschwitz. There was no hint of remorse.
“He just talked about the world in his days. He explained his routine, how he goes to the cinema and goes out with his dogs and how he goes to a German grocery store. There was nothing about the war,” Anton said.
Each member of his circle had their own motive for protecting a man reviled around the world for betraying his Hippocratic oath and using his total power over inmates in the Auschwitz death camp to conduct monstrous experiments.
At the end of the Second World War, Mengele escaped the Allies who were hunting Nazis by swapping his SS uniform for a Wehrmacht one and adopting a false name. After the kidnapping of Eichmann in 1960 by Mossad, Mengele moved to Brazil.
In 1985, a mock trial of Mengele was held at Auschwitz by 80 surviving victims and witnesses. Bossert later confessed that she had been harbouring Mengele and his remains were exhumed.
Anton said: “I think it is very important for people to know the consequences of this far-right mentality and what Mengele did.”