Josef Mangele the “Angel of Death”

Josef Mengele was a German physician and SS officer during World War II. He was born in 1911 in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany. Mengele is infamously known for his role as the “Angel of Death” at the Auschwitz camp, where he conducted cruel and deadly experiments on prisoners, particularly on twins and children.
During his time at Auschwitz from 1943 to 1945, Mengele selected prisoners for the gas chambers, conducted gruesome medical experiments on inmates, and engaged in various acts of cruelty and sadism. His experiments were conducted without regard for the victims’ well-being or consent, causing immense suffering and death to many innocent people.
After World War II ended, Mengele escaped capture by the Allies and lived under various aliases in South America. He first fled to Argentina, where he lived for several years, before moving to Paraguay and later Brazil. He evaded justice despite being hunted by Nazi hunters and international authorities for his war crimes.
There are differing accounts and unconfirmed reports surrounding Mengele’s death. The most widely accepted theory is that Josef Mengele died in 1979 in Brazil after a stroke while swimming. He reportedly drowned and was buried under his real name. His remains were later exhumed and identified through DNA testing in 1985, confirming his death.

Josef Mengele was a German physician and SS officer during World War II. He was born in 1911 in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany. Mengele is infamously known for his role as the “Angel of Death” at the Auschwitz camp, where he conducted cruel and deadly experiments on prisoners, particularly on twins and children.

During his time at Auschwitz from 1943 to 1945, Mengele selected prisoners for the gas chambers, conducted gruesome medical experiments on inmates, and engaged in various acts of cruelty and sadism. His experiments were conducted without regard for the victims’ well-being or consent, causing immense suffering and death to many innocent people.

After World War II ended, Mengele escaped capture by the Allies and lived under various aliases in South America. He first fled to Argentina, where he lived for several years, before moving to Paraguay and later Brazil. He evaded justice despite being hunted by Nazi hunters and international authorities for his war crimes.There are differing accounts and unconfirmed reports surrounding Mengele’s death. The most widely accepted theory is that Josef Mengele died in 1979 in Brazil after a stroke while swimming. He reportedly drowned and was buried under his real name. His remains were later exhumed and identified through DNA testing in 1985, confirming his death.

Famous Holocaust sites around the World

One of the most indescribable events in human history was the Holocaust. Many people believe that you can never truly appreciate or understand something until you see it for yourself. It’s also important to educate yourself about the atrocities of the Holocaust by visiting the locations where they happened.

Some of the most well-known sites of the Holocaust that you can visit today are:

  • Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camps
  • Anne Frank’s House
  • Schindler’s Factory in Krakow, Poland
  • The Holocaust Memorial Berlin
  • Yad Vashem
  • Warsaw Ghetto

‘Gipsy Camp’ at Birkenau.

Roma people were deported from all over Europe to what was known as the ‘Gypsy Camp’. It was created in Birkenau after Himmler signed an order in December 1942. The first groups of German inmates arrived in February 1943. The camp started to fill up rapidly as new transports landed.
The camp consisted of 32 wooden barracks with no insulation. The facilities were built to accommodate 400 people, but over 1000 people were crowded into them during the camp’s lifetime. The Roma families were living together, unlike other nationalities in other parts of the Auschwitz complex. Roma people were beaten and cursed upon their arrival at the camp and were forced to form rows in which they were moved from the train to the camp. After arriving at the camp, there was a communal bath, followed by mocking remarks from the SS members. For many Roma, the public bath was a humiliation source since it was against custom for a woman to undress in front of strangers. Following the bathing, the inmates were given the black triangles used to classify ‘asocials,’ which they had to attach to their clothes. Unlike most prisoners, they were permitted to wear civilian clothing. They also had a tattoo on their left forearm that started with a large letter Z (German for “gipsy”). Unlike those in other concentration camps, the Roma camp’s inmates were not included in labour commandos outside the camp. They mainly worked inside the camp, which meant that they did a lot of meaningless work. The best way to survive was to escape, but this was made more difficult because most of the inmates didn’t work outside Birkenau. Despite this, 80 failed escape attempts were reported, the majority of which ended in execution.

In total, over 20 000 people were detained in the ‘Gypsy Camp’. A party of 1 700 Polish Roma, for example, remained unrecorded after getting typhus. They were escorted back to the gas chambers without being registered. German and Austrian Roma made up the largest community, followed by Roma from Czechoslovakia and Poland’s territories. Gipsies from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries arrived in smaller groups. Transports to other death camps were their last chance of escape. Following these transports, the remaining 3000 Roma, mainly the aged and poor, women, and children, were sent to the gas chambers.

Concentration camps in Poland

Many of the Nazi’s concentration camps were established in Poland. Auschwitz, Majdanek and Stutthof are the most visited by tourists, and are easily accessible to travellers visiting Krakow, Lublin, Warsaw or Gdansk. The other major Nazi camps in Poland are:

  • Belzec – established in 1942, it is estimated that some 600,000 Jews and Roma had beed murdered there.
  • Chelmno nad Nerem (Cumhof) – established in 1941 as the first death camp built by the Nazis in Poland. An estimated 340,000 were murdered there, the majority Polsih Jews.
  • Rozgoznica (Gross – Rosen) – one of the earliest forced labour camps, established in 1940. 40,000 people perished there.
  • Sobibor – this death camp was set up in 1942, an estimated 250,000 inmates – mostly Jews from Poland, Ukraine, Holland, France and Austria were murdered there.
  • Treblinka – an estimated 800,000 people – Jews, Roma, Poles had perished in its gas chambers.