JOSEF MENGELE

BACKGROUND

• Mengele went to college at the University of Munich
• In 1935 he got his Ph.D. in physical anthropology
• In January of 1937, he became the assistant to Dr. Otmar von Verschuer
• Dr. Otmar von Verschuer was well known for his obsession and research on twins
• Also in 1937, Josef joined the Nazi party

BACKGROUND

• In 1938, Mengele got his medical degree
• That same year, he joined the SS
• He was drafted into the army in June 1940
• On May 30, 1943, Mengele transferred to Auschwitz

EVENT

• Dr. Josef Mengele performed experiments on Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners, and Gypsies
• He performed many selections, and seemed to enjoy it
• People often saw Mengele at selection ramps more often than other medical staff
• Dr. Mengele was obsessed with twins, which he devoted most of his time and effort into
• Out of the estimated 3,000 twins at Auschwitz, less than 200 survived his awful experiments

EVENT

• Although the number is impossible to know for sure, he is thought to have killed over 400,000
• Some people say he was responsible for around a million
• He was obsessed with heterochromia and Noma, a type of Gangrene

IMPACT

• Dr. Mengele killed thousands of children, and hundreds of thousands more through gas chambers
• Most of his experiments are considered inhumane and unethical, so they cannot be tested again
• Over 170,000 non-Jews were sent to Auschwitz, a lot of which died at his hands

SOURCES

• Vansuch, Bryan. MENGELE’S ETHICS: AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING JOSEF MENGELE’S MOTIVES
• (2011): 123
• users.stlcc.edu June 10, 2013. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. March 12 2014. https://users.stlcc.edu/rkalfus/PDFs/112.pdf
• www.nizkor.org 2012. The Nizkor Project. March 14 2014. http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-09.html
• Rees, Laurence. Auschwitz. New York: MJF Books, 2005