accepted into Nazi party in 1937 and then applied to be a member of the SS
studied medicine at the University of Frankfurt
In 1934, he went to the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene
published many articles on genetics and the variation of facial features in different races
served as a medical doctor next to some of the best of the time at Auschwitz before being appointed to chief doctor
In Auschwitz, he became known as the “Angel of Death”
The Angel of Death
called "The Angel of Death" because he determined if people went to the right side (life) or to the left (death)
At 32 years old, He sent a block of 750 women to the gas chambers because lice broke out in their section.
Often known for recommending death as a "cure" to diseases
killed 400,000 people just by sending them to the death chambers upon arrival at Auschwitz
obsessed with Twins was an understatement
He liked to draw twins' blood
One night, he rounded up 14 Gypsy twins and pumped their hearts with chloroform, killing them instantly. He then proceeded to dissect each and every part of their bodies
In another instance, Mengele oversaw twin Gypsy children being sewn together
Josef Mengele was very interested in a condition called heterochromia, which is the differing color of the irises for an individual.
Throughout his research at Auschwitz, he would take the eyes of his murdered subjects. This way, he could “finish” the research he began.
Mengele did other experiments with eyes. He wanted to discover how to artificially change eye color.
He would inject his subjects with different mixtures of chemicals to see if he could change their eye color.
Josef Mengele conducted experiments to prove the National Socialist racial theory. He wanted to show the lack of resistance to certain diseases in Jews and gypsies. He wanted to show they were different than the pure German race.
He also wanted to show the degeneration of Jewish and Gypsy blood by documenting physical differences and analyzing removed tissue and body parts.
Many people that were the subjects were killed because of the experimenting, or killed so autopsies could be done to see the effects, or changes, of the experiments on the subjects.
Mengele conducted his experiments with no anesthesia.
Josef Mengele conducted freezing experiments on some of his subjects.
He wanted to investigate the most effective means of treating people who had been in severely cold temperatures.
His subjects had to sit in ice water for up to three hours, then a variety of techniques was used to see what the best way was to rewarm them. Sometimes, subjects were forced to stand outside naked with temperatures below freezing.
Often, the subjects died during the course of freezing them.
His Escape and Later Life:
At the end of WWII, Mengele escaped capture and fled to South America
In South America he assumed many identities
He lived there for 35 years, never to be found until after death
forensics show that at the time of his death, he had assumed the name of a fellow Nazi friend he had escaped with, Woldgang Gerhard