Brennen Fenton

Mr. Palcsey

Honors English 10

4-23-18

Dr. Mengele Experiments During WWII

WWII was a very unique and complex war. This war lasted for roughly six years and

involved thirty countries with about one hundred million people involved. During this war, one

of the biggest persecutions occurred. This was the holocaust with Adolf Hitler in control. Adolf

Hitler used propaganda to convince innocent Jewish people to come into concentration camps

and was worked to death or just persecuted for being Jewish. Hitler did this to make the “perfect

race” where everything was perfect. There were many different jobs that the Nazi’s had in the

camps. For example, Dr. Josef Mengele was a scientist in the concentration camp Auschwitz.

During the holocaust Mengele was assigned to Auschwitz after going to school, he performed

experiments on twins, and his impact he made during the holocaust.

Dr. Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 and was born in Gunzbúrg, Germany.

He grew up as the eldest child of Karl Mengele. Mengele lived a very enjoyable and interesting

lifestyle growing up as a kid. When Mengele grew up he went to the university of Munich.

Mengele took his studies at Munich very serious. He earned a Ph.D. in physical anthropology in

1935. As Mengele was becoming more experienced with his studies he became a student to Dr.

Otmar von Verschuer. Dr. Otmar was the man who introduced the studies of twins to Mengele.

Dr. Otmar was very well known for his studies with twins. At this time in his life Mengele took
 Fenton 2

a huge interest with twins. In 1937 Mengele joined the Nazi party and in that same year he also

earned his medical degree. Three years after earning his degree he was sent to the army and was

later wounded so he could not join the Nazi party right away. He studied Anthropology, Human

Genetics, and Eugenics. On 1943 around the time of April, Mengele joined the Nazi’s and was

promoted to an SS captain which was one of the higher rankings for a Nazi. There were many

physicians that worked in Auschwitz, but he was one of the most known. Mengele was first

assigned to work in the barracks but later went to the selection process for his experiments. In

the book The Last Nazi, it says “Mengele was placed in the selection camp on November 3, as

the “angel of extermination” (Astor 139). One day five hundred nine Jews came into the camp

from Sered, Czechoslovakia and Mengele immediately send four hundred and sixty-one of them

straight to be persecuted. After Mengele was assigned to the Auschwitz he began his

experiments on specific people because he believed it would purify the race.

Before Mengele started his experiments, he did he created a potato farm to see different

cells inside the potato’s and what they had in common. This showed Mengele that genetics are

also in humans and some people share the same traits. He started to do the experiments on

dwarfs then he moved on to twins. Ephraim Reichenberg was one of the survivors who

witnessed Mengele do his experiments. Ephraim says, “We were assigned to Birkenau barrack

11 together with approximately 1,000 children, mostly twins and dwarfs” (Reichenberg 1). This

quote talks about how many dwarfs and twins Mengele does experiments. He also did test on

women by drawing their blood. In the book The Last Nazi it says “Dr. Mengele worked very

publicly. He sterilized or gave the order to sterilize women and men and he syphoned blood

from people” (Astor 141). Some of his test subjects say that he had crucial experiments and

most of the subjects didn’t end up surviving. If the subject survived his test would be sent
 Fenton 3

straight to the gas chambers. In the book The Last Nazi one of Mengele’s subjects claims “His

experiments were carried out in abnormal fashion. When he mad blood transfusions he

purposely used incorrect blood types. He did whatever would please him…" (Astor 102). This

quote showed what type of man Mengele was. He purposely mixed his subjects blood together

which would make them extremely ill. Not only would Mengele just withdraw blood, but he

would also put his subjects on a death march in freezing cold weather and he would inject twins

with mysterious injections. In the article Twin Perspective of Mengele Ephraim states “They

injected some substance into our anterior necks, which in both of us immediately led to swelling,

high fever, vomiting, hoarseness, muteness, and a state of exhaustion for several days”

(Reichenberg 1). These injections were repeated over and over again for about four to five days

for about three months. When the was coming to an end Mengele knew he had to flee so he

wouldn’t get caught for the crimes he had committed.

Towards the ending of the war Mengele knew he had to leave before he is caught by the

policemen. Mengele fled Nazi Germany in the spring of 1949. An SS officer in Gunzberg paid

off Mengele’s ticket for his escape. Mengele took trains and also planes and was on the run for a

while. In the book Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Stories of the twins of Auschwitz it says

“Dr. Mengle would be flying to Miami, Florida, on a Delta Airlines flight” (Lagnado, Dekel

243). The embassy in Asuncion was expecting Mengele to be flying on Delta Airlines and was

going to be ready to catch him off his flight landing in Florida only to find out he wasn’t on that

flight. Mengele planned his escape smart and knew ahead of times the chances of getting caught

and how to avoid it. Later in that month, a holocaust survivor swore she saw Mengele shopping

downtown in the city of Asuncion. Throughout Mengele’s escape he came in contact with a

policeman who ordered Mengele to show them his Italian visa card where he was came from.
 Fenton 4

He was soon taken into an emptied room and asked to empty his pockets out. Multiple countries

were warned about Mengele’s escape and how to keep watch for him. Mengele was held by the

police for three days for questioning them but soon was released. Mengele moved to the area of

Vicente Lopez where he shared a room with another guy. The man noticed that Mengele had

doctor equipment in his bag, but Mengele had to keep his identity hidden and he denied it.

Mengele moved into a city center apartment back in Argentina. Mengele had an extraordinary

effect during the holocaust. He took many innocent people’s lives which was extremely painful

for the victims. It is very crucial for people in this world to understand what type of people that

were in the holocaust and what happened in that time period.

The holocaust was a very sad and disturbing time period. Some people don’t know the

truth about the holocaust and what really happened inside those camps. Millions of people were

killed during the holocaust and this is very important for people to understand this. Dr. Josef

Mengele was one of these people who tortured and took many lives with his own hands. This is

very crucial for the people in the world today to understand the cause and effect the holocaust

had on the world today. There were many mentally ill people in the holocaust. For example,

Mengele thought doing these experiments were ok and that he was doing something good. In

reality he was killing and injuring thousands of people.

 Fenton 5

Works Cited

Astor, Gerald. The Last Nazi: The Life and Times of Dr. Joseph Mengele. Sphere, 1986.

Lagnado, Lucette, and Sheila Cohn. Dekel. Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold

Story of the Twins of Auschwitz. Penguin Books, 1992.

Posner, Gerald L., and John jt. au. Ware. Mengele: The Complete Story. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1986.

Reichenberg, Ephraim. “Personal Accounts: Resilience: Message From a ‘Mengele Twin’

Survivor.” Psychiatric Services, 1 Oct. 2011.

Seidelman, W E. “The Professional Origins of Dr. Josef Mengele.” CMAJ: Canadian Medical

Association Journal, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 15 Apr. 1986.