Josef Mengele

Josef Mengele, also known as The Angel of Death, was responsible for the deaths of many innocent people during the Holocaust. His ideas for experimenting were strongly influenced by his family, childhood, and past. He caused human suffering through his lethal experiments. By committing all of these atrocities, one could easily argue that he did not get proper justice.

Mengele’s Past

Mengele was born March 16, 1911 in Gunzburg, Germany. Mengele was the oldest of his two brothers Karl Jr. and Alois. Karl Mengele, their father, was a very successful manufacturer of farming tools. Walburga, Josef’s mother, was a mean, cruel lady. She would go to Karl’s factory and would be ruthless to his workers and even to her own husband. Many believe that she was one of the main influences on Josef Mengele. Other main influences in Josef’s life include his hometown and his looks of a Gypsy. Mengele had dark brown hair, eyes, and fairly dark skin. “At school he had endured the mild taunts from his classmates about his ‘Gypsy’ looks...His home town of Gunzburg, especially, was full of folktale about Gypsies coming to kidnap children who misbehaved.” (Posner, Ware 25) Later in his life, Josef got his Ph. D. in Physical Anthropology in 1935 from the University of Munich. Physical Anthropology is the study of the humankind. Two years later, he assisted a scientist physician at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. This physician was Dr. Otmar von Verschuer; he is famous for his research with twins, which is what inspired Mengele’s work.

Mengele’s Career

“Mengele began his career at Auschwitz in the spring of 1943 as the medical officer responsible for Birenau’s ‘Gypsy Camp’ “. (Josef Mengele) Within the next couple of weeks, ...

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Posner, Gerald L., and John Ware. Mengele: the complete story. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986. Print.

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“The Search for Perpetrators.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005167