Josef Mengele, The Angel of Death

Throughout the Holocaust Years, and shortly afterwards, there was a man that struck fear in the people imprisoned in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – “the Angel of Death”. He was a man who showed up for selections with a demeanor that made one think he was handsome and debonair yet, one could not possibly think of the monstrosities that he committed during World War II. Even more disturbing is that “wherever he sprang up, Death spread its shadow.” (Wiesel xix)

In 1911, Karl and Walburga delivered a baby boy, Josef Mengele, in Gunzburg, Germany. While studying medicine and anthropology, he developed an interest in genetics. His experimental ideas sprouted from these interests. Mengele made his presence known at the camps he inhabited with experiments consisting of sterilization, attempting to change the color of the eye, gangrene and “obsessive efforts to explore the mysteries of twins.” (Friedrich 56) In addition to twins, Mengele used test subjects such as dwarfs, gypsies, and people with handicaps. The Angel of Death had absolutely no problem blaming the victim for dying or becoming ill and killed for science without a second notion since he was simply trying to make a name for himself in the world of medicine.

Clearly, Mengele received his wishes as he continued to experiment on twins, with what would have been groundbreaking had he succeeded. He experimented with trying to change boys into girls, and injected twins with different diseases in order to observe them side by side on the autopsy table when they died within hours of each other; if the sick one were to die, he would kill the otherwise healthy twin in order to perform his autopsies.

“In those days we didn’t know what the experiments were for or what we...

... middle of paper ...

...er in their grave at the world forgetting them and recognizing the pain they suffered.

Works Cited

Cefrey, Holly. Doctor Josef Mengele The Angel of Death (Holocaust Biographies). New York: Rosen Group, 2001. Print.

Friedrich, Otto. Kingdom of Auschwitz. 1994. Print.

Kor, Eva. Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz. 2009. Print.

Lifton, Robert Jay. Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. 1988. Print.

Nimoy, Leonard. "The Angel of Death/Josef Mengele." In Search Of... 1 Feb. 1979. Television.

Steinbacher, Sybille. Auschwitz A History. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. Print.

Wiesel, Elie. Foreword. Doctors from Hell : The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans. 2005. Xix. Print.

Wistrich, Robert S. Hitler and the Holocaust (Modern Library Chronicles). New York: Modern Library, 2003. Print.