Avery Polak

Miss Schmidt

Honors English 9

February 27, 2018

An Annotated Bibliography: Dr. Mengele and his Experiments

Josef Mengele, Angel of Death, www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm.

Joseph Mengele studied and experimented on a great number of twins. He would torture

Jewish and Gypsy children. Some of the “patients” were experimented on by being put into

pressure chambers, tested with many drugs, castrated, frozen to death, and exposed to many

traumas. Mengele was born on March 16, 1911. He was the older than his two other

brothers. As a young child and teen, he was seen as intelligent and popular in his town. At

the University of Munich, he studied philosophy and at Frankfurt University he majored in

medicine. In 1937, he was accepted into the Nazi Party, and in 1938 he joined the SS. In

1942 he was injured at the Russian Front and could no long participate in combat duty. So,

he volunteered to work at a concentration camp, and he was sent to Auschwitz. When

Mengele was 32, and one block had lice, he said he could solve the problem. He sent all

750 women to the gas chamber. Mengele took his first set of twins and drew blood until

they bled out. He would also try to change their eye color by injecting chemicals straight

into their eyes. Along with his physical experiments, Mengele preformed psychological
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experiments. When Mengele left Auschwitz, he was disguised as a member of the regular

German infantry. He was later captured by POW, but his allies released him. Mengele then

moved to Argentina with a false identity given to him by the Red Cross. Later Mengele

fled to Brazil, where he died due to a stroke while swimming which caused him to drown.

Several years later they took DNA from his body and match it to the DNA of his son and

wife, and this helped confirm that another Nazi was dead.

“Josef Mengele.” Josef Mengele, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/josef-mengele.

Dr. Josef Mengele, also known as the “Angel of Death”, was the infamous physician of

Auschwitz. Mengele was 20 years old when he joined the Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet). Once

he joined the Nazi Party, he applied to be apart of the SS. Mengele majored in physical

anthropology and genetics. Before his job at Auschwitz, he published three articles. The

first one was called “Racial-Morphological Examination of the Anterior Portion of the

Lower Jaw in Four Racial Groups”. His second piece was a medical dissertation entitled

“Genealogical Studies in the Cases of Cleft Lip-Jaw-Palate”, and it was published in 1938.

The third article was named “Hereditary Transmission of Fistulae Auris”. By 1938 he

began working in the military. In 1940, he in the reserve medical corps and then the Waffen

SS unit, but he was declared medically unfit for combat. However, Mengele was the

promoted to captain. There were many other doctors and prisoners that testified against

Josef Mengele. They all said he was a cruel, inhuman man. The Frankfurt Court charged

him with “hideous crimes”. There is an organization called C.A.N.D.L.E.S., and some of
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the members of the organization are the twins that Mengele experimented on. Dr. Miklos

Nyiszli said in Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, twins provided the perfect

experimental specimens because one could be a control while the other was experimented

on. When one twin was sick and went to the infirmary, they never came back. The second

twin was killed with shots of phenol. There were about 1,500 sets of twins chosen for the

experiments in the Holocaust. When Auschwitz was freed, there were only 200 children

alive. Although there was a body and bones found in Brazil that were identified as Josef

Mengele, many believe that he is not dead.

“Josef Mengele.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007060.

Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 in Günzburg. Mengele received a Ph.D. in

physical anthropology from the University of Munich in 1935. Mengele is known for his

experiments with twins, which he assisted Dr. Otmar von Verschuer on at the Institute for

Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt. In 1937, Mengele joined the Nazi

party, and then he joined the SS and earned a medical degree. In 1940, Mengele entered

the army and after volunteered for the medical service of the Waffen-SS. In April of

1943, he obtained an advancement to the position of SS captain; this promotion led to

Mengele transferring to Auschwitz. He was one of 30 physicians responsible for

“selections”. During his time in the concentration camps, he was given the nicknames

“Angel of Death” and “White Angel” because he was among some of the crueler and
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stricter doctors. While Mengele was off-duty he would look for twins on the incoming

prisoners. Mengele was also very interested in heterochromia, which is a condition where

a person’s eyes are two different colors. He would collect eye balls from his victims and

would say they were “research material”. Additionally, he would record data of growth of

the disease Noma, a type of gangrene. Mengele was a true believer of the doctrine of

National Socialist racial theory. When Mengele needed help with his experiments, he

would force a prisoner physician. One who was well know is Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, who

later wrote about his experiences. After the war, Mengele was in US custody until they

realized he was a war criminal wanted in other countries. The US released him, and later

Germany declared a warrant for his arrest. They never caught him because he fled to

Brazil. Josef Mengele died on February 7, 1979. Later in 1985, Brazilian forensic experts

positively identified his body as Josef Mengele, and in 1992, DNA confirmed this.

Rosenberg, Jennifer. “Why Do Many Consider Josef Mengele to Be Evil?” ThoughtCo,

www.thoughtco.com/josef-mengele-1779874.

Josef Mengele was a Nazi SS physician who conducted experiments on twins, little

people, and others while at Auschwitz. He was born on March 16, 1911 in Günzburg,

Germany. His father was Karl, his mother was Walburga, and he had two younger

brothers, Karl and Alois. When he was young his nickname was “Beppo”. Mengele was

diagnosed with osteomyelitis in 1926. In 1931, Mengele joined the Steel Helmets

(Stahlhlem), later to be named the SA. Mengele had kidney troubles in 1934, and he had
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to leave the SA. Then he finished and earned his Ph.D. in 1935 from the University of

Munich. On January 1, 1937, he was named research assistant to Professor Otmar

Freiherr von Verschuer at the Third Reich Institute for Heredity, Biology, and Racial

Purity at the University of Frankfurt. He was affiliated with the NSDAP in 1937, and in

1938 he joined the SS. He graduated with a medical degree in 1938 also. In 1939, he was

married to Irene Schoenbein. Then he worked for the Waffen SS in Poland and later

Berlin, and he was appointed captain. On May 30, 1943 went to Auschwitz and

experimented on the prisoners that were different. He was in charge of selections in the

women’s camp which earned him the nickname “Angel of Death”. He had a son named

Rolf. Mengele was captured as a war prisoner and was held in a POW camp. In 1954 he

became divorced from Irene. He later married his brother’s widow, Martha Mengele. On

June 7, 1959, Germany issued a warrant for his arrest. In 1964, the Universities of

Munich and Frankfurt revoked his academic degrees. He presumably died on February 7,

1979, because he suffered a stroke while swimming on a beach in Embu, Brazil.

Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

2017.

Dr. Mengele was a typical SS officer. Mengele was well known and infamous. He was

cruel. Dr. Mengele was choosing for selections. Mengele was not the only SS officer
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standing at the selections. He was holding a baton to direct the incoming prisoners. He

asked three questions. Mengele asked about Elie Wiesel’s age, health, and profession. If

the prisoner had an age that was not too young but also not old, good health, and a strong

profession, Mengele motioned with his baton to move to the left. When he pointed towards

the left, it meant they would become a prisoner and worker. If Mengele pointed to the right,

it meant that the prisoner would be going to the crematorium. The women and children

automatically go to the right. Elie was told to lie about his age and occupation by another

prisoner. Elie did lie to Mengele, and so then Mengele pointed to the left and Elie moved

on to live. Then Mengele moved on to the next prisoner, and then the next.