“THE ANGEL OF DEATH”
JOSEF MENGELE
By: Michelle Davidson
I will apply dietetic measures for
the benefit of the sick according
The more we do to you, the less
to my ability and judgment; I will
you seem to believe we are
keep them from harm and
injustice.- Hippocratic Oath
doing it. - Joseph Mengele
“Mengele was an attractive man. A
perennial little smile showed the gap
between his front teeth. Immaculately
dressed in jodhpurs, he wore a cap
bearing the SS insignia and carried
the obligatory riding crop, constantly
slapping it against his gleaming
black boots. Whenever he spoke to
me, he was very polite, giving the
impression that he was interested in
me. It was hard to believe that his
little smile and courteous behaviour
were just a facade behind which he
devised the most horrific murderous
schemes.” Ruth Elias, a survivor of
Theresienstadt and Auschwitz
He was in charge of the
gas chamber selections.
1. Where He Came from
2. What Did He Do
3. Preferred Victims
4. Tools He Used
5. His Past Time
6. Why Did He Do It
7. Where Was The Morality
8. Escaping Justice
WHERE HE CAME FROM
WHAT DID HE DO
Freezing
Vivisections
Eye Colour
Sea Water
High Altitude
Mustard Gas
& Other
Weapons
Deisese &
Bacteria
Psychological
Sulphanilamide
Switching
limbs &
Siamese twins
Babies
Research
FREEZING
• Subjects were
immersed in freezing
cold water till death
or near death
• In some cases they
tried to re-warm
them up
VIVISECTIONS
• Subjects opened up and
studied with no
anaesthesia
• Tried to learn more
about the body
• Meticulous notes kept of
every inch
EYE COLOUR
Victims experienced excruciating pain
SEA WATER
• Forced to drink salt water
• Tested to see if they could
make it drinkable
• All victims dehydrated and died
from this experiment
• Many in desperation tried to
drink the water off the freshly
mopped floor
HIGH ALTITUDE
• Tested was for
humans to survive
high pressure without
suits and equipment
• Victims usually died
MUSTARD GAS & OTHER
WEAPONS
He would test them on victims/prisoners and see which treatments worked the best.
DISEASE & BACTERIA
Interesting Fact
• Malaria Experiments
• Spotted Fever
(Typhus) Experiments
When Mengele first came to Auschwitz he rid
the entire female camp side of typhus, in his
own ruthless manner
• Gassed the first 600 women from first set
of barracks
• Then all the women from the second set
of barrack were taken out bathed and
given new cloths
• They were then moved into the vacant
living quarters
• The second two steps were repeated until
all the barracks were cleansed
Problem solved, and more scum dead
PSYCHOLOGICAL
• He used the Daisy Game on
children
• It used a mixture of electric pulses
and a sadistically smiling Josef
Mengele as well as an expected
routine of torture and death
SULPHANILAMIDE
• Purposely inflict wounds to
simulate war wounds
• Used bacteria such as
streptococcus, gas gangrene, and
tetanus.
• Aggravated wound by:
•
Rubbing ground glass
•
Wood shavings
• Tried to treat with Sulphanilamide
• Injuries were serious and would
sometimes lead to death
SWITCHING LIMBS
& SIAMESE TWINS
BABIES
•
•
•
•
•
Mengele preformed proper medical
deliveries
He treated them immaculately and
he was kind to them, giving a false
sense of security
However he took them for
experiments or just out right killed
them
According to one Jew’s story after
she gave birth Mengele ordered that
her breast be bound
He wanted to see how long her baby
would take to die from starvation
GENERAL RESEARCH
• General medical
techniques to gain
information
• Most was done
inhumanly as can be
seen from the story
of the two Hungarian
twins
HIS PREFERRED SUBJECTS
Giants
Russians
He would use Russian captives
for freezing experiments to see
how there body had adapted to
the cold when really it was
mostly their garb
Other genetic deformations
Wanted to understand how
genetics work and how they
mutate
Dwarfs
Twins
Wanted to find a way to
create the master race
faster by creating
duplicates through twins
TOOLS HE USED
Normal medical tools
Scalpel
Thermometer
Stethoscope
Needles
etc.
He also used scientific experimentation
procedure to preform his experiments
and gather knowledge
HIS PAST TIME AT AUSCHWITZ
20 miles from Auschwitz, is a
place for the guards to relax
and forget about the 3,000
Jews that were killed per day
All the while the guards enjoyed:
Games
Dancing
Lots of food
Music
And cavorting with the Helferinnen (Females
that worked alongside the Army in a variety of
positions)
WHY DID HE DO IT ?
Po w e r & S c i e n c e ?
Sadistic?
• Wanted to be better
• To have power over others
• He wanted to please the Fur to
move further up the ranks gaining
more control
• He wanted to crate a perfect army
of the ideal Germans
• Enjoys causing the pain
inflicted by his research
• He wanted to make the Jews
and others fear him
• His only childhood issue was
his over expecting father who
showed very little intimacy
WHERE WAS THE MORALITY
LEFT OUT ?
Morals
Fa c t s / A u t h o r i t y
The morals that were needed
Do what is right
He was taught by the authoritative
figure of a teacher in school to:
Question what you are given
Follow the rules no matter what
Respect others but have a mind of your own
The facts are what is important
Listen to authority but not without question
Focus on what happened not why
Do your best
Do not question authority
These were not taught in school for
Josef Mengele, they are not particularly
taught in school now. Everyone has to
find a moral compass of there own.
They did not teach why something
was what it was, the reasons behind
the facts, or to question what is
given.
ESCAPING JUSTICE
•
•
•
•
January 1945, fled Auschwitz
Arrived at Gross-Rosen camp
before the Russians;
He then left Gross-Rosen camp
before Russians liberated it on
February 11, 1945
Captured as prisoner of war and
held in a POW camp near Munich
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Received papers from fellow prisoner, Dr. Fritz Ulmann;
he did not have the usual SS’s blood type tattooed beneath
his arm so the American Army did not realise he was a
member and let him go
Laid low at George Fischer’s(a pseudonym of a fellow
Nazi) farm for three years
1949 escaped to Argentina
1954 divorced from Irene
1956 had his name officially changed back to Josef
Mengele
1958 married his brother, Karl's, widow - Martha Mengele
June 7, 1959 West Germany finally issued their first arrest
warrant for Mengele
1959 at some point moved from Argentina to Paraguay
1964 the Universities of Frankfurt and Munich withdrew
his academic degrees
Believed to have died on February 7, 1979 on the beach at
Bertioga in Embu, Brazil while suffering a stroke while
swimming in the ocean and drowned.
It has been verified that 1985 the grave in Embu, Braxil
marked “Wolfgang Gerhard” was in fact Mengele’s