“He cut into me, without anesthetic, . . .The pain was indescribable. I felt every slice of the knife. Then I saw my kidney pulsating in his hand. I cried like a madman, I cried out the prayer; ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one . . . And I prayed to die, that I might not suffer this agony any more’” (Hall). This was said by a ‘patient’ of Dr. Josef Mengele, Mr.Yitzhak Ganon. Mr. Ganon was of the survivors of the inhumane experiments that took place in Auschwitz by the hand of the abominable man that is Josef Mengele. Josef Mengele was one of the most infamous men associated with the Holocaust, his cruel experiments on prisoners being held at Auschwitz made him widely known for his cruelty, warranting him the title “The Angel of Death.”
How is an evil born? How does the Angel of Death get its wings? Josef Mengele was born in a small town in Germany where his father owned a reasonably successful farming equipment factory. He was the eldest of three brothers and was very close to his mother. It was reported that she was a cruel woman that the factory workers feared. As a child, Joseph was a very charming boy and won people over with his wit. In Mengele’s teen years he decided to pursue becoming a doctor and make a name for himself to rise from his father’s shadow. Josef began his studies by getting a Ph.D. in anthropology, the science of human beings: especially of human beings and their ancestors. Then he continued his studies at The University of Frankfurt. It was there that Mengele met Dr. Verschure and started his study of eugenics. Eugenics is the sterilization of unwanted races, and the promotion of preferred races. It was here that Mengele was acquainted with the growing movement to purify society by the purgi...
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...ates Holocaust Memorial Council, 10
June 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
“Josef Mengele, Angel of Death” Josef Mengele, Angel of Death. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014
Lagnado, Lucette, and Sheila Cohn. Dekel. Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the
Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz. New York: Morrow 1991. print
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Josef Mengele (German Physician)." Encyclopedia
Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
"Auschwitz Survivors Recall Horror Of Nazi Experiments." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 07 Feb. 1985.
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"A Quote by Terry Pratchett." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Broder, Jonathan “Auschwitz Survivors Recall Horror of Nazi Experiments” Chicago Tribune 7
Feb. 1985
“World In Action: Nazi War Criminal Dr. Josef Mengele’s Secret Life in South America.” by
PuplicEnquiry
In Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli tells the story of his time in Auschwitz. Dr. Nyiszli is a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp located in Poland. His story provides the world with a description of horrors that had taken place in camp in 1944. Separated from his wife and daughter, Dr. Nyiszli volunteered to work under the supervision of the head doctor in the concentration camp, Josef Mengele. It was under Dr. Mengele’s supervision that Dr. Nyiszli was exposed to the extermination of innocent people and other atrocities committed by the SS. Struggling for his own survival, Dr. Nyiszli did anything possible to survive, including serving as a doctor’s assistant to a war criminal so that he could tell the world what happened at the Auschwitz concentration camp.This hope for survival and some luck allowed Dr. Nyiszli to write about his horrific time at Auschwitz.His experiences in Auschwitz will remain apart of history because of the insight he is able to provide.
Have you ever wondered if there was someone even more evil than Hitler? Let me introduce you to Josef Mengele. He was one of the cruelest and hellacious doctors during World War 2. Most commonly known for his vicious experiments with twins, he was given the name “the angel of death”.
During World War II, Hitler rounded up people who were not part of the Aryan Race and sent them to concentration camps; in those camps, some of those people served as test subjects for medical experimentation. These experiments separate into three categories. The first type were “experiments aimed at facilitating the survival of Axis military personnel,” (Museum). Next, the “experimentation aimed at developing and testing pharmaceuticals and treatment methods for injuries and illnesses which German military and occupation personnel encountered in the field” (Museum). Finally, the “[experimentations] sought to advance the racial and ideological tenets of the Nazi worldview” (Museum). In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, Dr. Mengele conducted at least two of the selections that Elie had to watch and go through, but it is different because in Night, Elie Wiesel was not aware of the experiments and only saw Dr. Mengele during the selections. Dr. Mengele and other SS doctors received the power to test various medical experiments on Jews, Gypsies, war prisoners, the unwanted, and others that Hitler sent to concentration camps. Some were done for science and others were just to satisfy the doctor's interests.
...tically determined in other people as well.” (Lifton, 1985) A Nazi who said he never intentionally hurt anyone and was just doing his job was what Mengele’s son recalls during a visit in 1977. Mengele fled from a country to another and died in 1979 in Brazil from a stroke and was buried as Wolfgang Gerhard, his body was later dig up in 1985 for a forensic examination to prove it was Mengele’s body, but it wasn’t until in 1992 when DNA proved that it was Mengele’s body. Dr. Josef Mengele, a doctor who did the opposite of what doctors do in their career which is to care and not harm, killed many prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp and became one of the evilest men among others in the Holocaust with his experimentations, but to the twins who lived he was the doctor who scarred them for life, and a doctor that was never prosecuted for his crimes in Auschwitz.
Children Of The Flames was written by Lucette Matalon Lagnado, a book that had taken her over six years to write. She got the idea of finding Mengele’s twins, as they were called, after a discussion with a now-ex Parade magazine editor Larry Smith. For her research, she had to use a wide expanse of resources, which include David Marwell, the chief historian and the U.S. Department’s Office for Special Investigations and the editors of Bunte and Stern magazines for original documents written by Dr. Mengele.
In 1933 German politician Adolf Hitler led a genocide known as the Holocaust, which eventually led to “The Final Solution”, throughout this time over 6 million Jews were persecuted due to the fact that “The Nazi ideology was predicated on the concept of racial supremacy. At the top of the tree was the Aryan race; at the foot were the ‘untermenschen’: blacks, gypsies, homosexuals and Jews” (Bogod). During this time German doctors performed a number of unethical medical experiments in order to advance in medicine, these crimes were committed against individuals, without consent. Recently, I read Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, a novel written by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, the information documented in the novel was difficult to digest due
Josef Mengele was born March 16, 1911 in Gunzburg, Germany and his parents were Karl (1881-1959) and Walburga (?-1946) Mengele. He had two younger brothers; Karl (1912-1949 and Alois (1914-1974). He had several nicknames, one of them being Beppo. He was a bright and cheerful child in his early days. (Mengele32) He was full of ambition and had high hopes for his future. In 1930 he graduated from the Gymnasium and in 1935 he was awarded a PhD from the University of Munich. In 1937 he was appointed a research assistant at the Third Reich Institute for Heredity, Biology, and Racial Purity at the University of Frankfurt; worked with Professor Otmar Freiherr von Vershuer. (Mengele54) In May 1938 he joined the SS (Schutzstapple - elite unit which protected Hitler and his important dignitaries) and in 1940 he joined the medical corps (Sanitatsinspektion) of the Waffen SS. (an actual army unit that fights on the front lines made up of the SS - they were very widely feared) (grandparents2) In July 1939 Mengele married Irene Schoenbein.
Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 in Gunzburg, Germany. His parents were Carl and Walburga. Shortly after Joseph's birth, his family became wealthy due to his father becoming the sole owner of a factory that manufactured farm equipment. The business prospered and his family became a power and influential family. While Mengele was a young boy, his parents were frequently absent, and he was raised in a very strong Roman Catholic home, filled with hard la...
On May 29, 1962, Adolf Eichmann was convicted and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, the Jewish people, and crimes during a time of war. Shortly after midnight on May 31, 1962, Adolf Eichmann was taken to the gallows at Ramle. All efforts made to reconcile him with religion failed. “The closer Eichmann came to execution, the more defiant he became in rejecting Christianity.” (Hausner 446) He also rejected the offer of the black hood, saying, “I don’t need that.” He began his last words with the statement that he was a Gottglaubiger, a man who believed in God but was no Christian and did not believe in the afterlife. He continued by saying, “Gentlemen, after a short while, we shall meet again. Such is the fate of all men. Long live Germany, long live Argentina, and long live Austria! I shall not forget them.” (Papadatos 232) Then as the trapdoor was sprung and Eichmann’s lifeless body swung from the gallows, a time in world history that few will soon forget, had finally come to an end. Yet, one will realize that although the holocaust was ultimately Hitler’s vision, it was in fact, the creation of Adolf Eichmann.
Posner, Gerald L., and John Ware. Mengele: The Complete Story. N.p.: n.p., n.d.Google Books. Web. 11
” Josef Mengele” Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.June 10, 2013 Web. 24 March 2014
One of the most demented doctors of the Nazi era went by the name of Josef Mengele. This was because of the gruesome experiments he conducted on woman, men, and children. Mengele wasn't always part of the Nazi culture. In fact, a lot of people don't seem to know how he ended up living the life that he did. Mengele started his career saving lives and helping people, not destroying them. So what caused him to change his ways so drastically? How could someone find it so easy to cause somebody else so much pain and agony?
1. Gutman, Yisrael. “Nazi Doctors.” Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press: 1994. 301-316
Mitscherlich, Meilk Doctor of infamy: the story of the nazi medical crimes. New York: Schuman, 1949; xxii-xxv