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Dr. Josef Mengele, born March 16, 1911 and died February 7, 1979, was a Nazi physician who performed experiments
that were condemned as murderously sadistic on prisioners in Auschwitz. He personally selected over 400,000 prisoners
to die in gas chambers in Auschwitz, because of his cruel behavior he got the nickname Beppo; he was called the Angel of Death
by camp inmates. In 1926, Mengele was diagnosed with osteomyelitis, which is a bacterial infection of the bone and bone
marrow, since then he wanted to study medicine and anthropology. At the University of Munich he ontained a doctorate
in Anthropology.
In 1932,at the age of 21, Mengele joined the League of Front Soldiers, but he resigned shortly after due to health problems.
In 1937 he applied for Nazi party membership and in 1938 he joined the SS. It was on May 24, 1943 he became medical
officer of Auschwitz-Birkenau's so-called gypsy camp. Mengele then became Chief Medical Officer of the main infirmary
camp at Birkenau.
Dr. Mengele achieved infamy, during his 21 month stay at Auschwitz, and it is for this period that he was later referred
to as the "Angel of Death". He was usually part of the "selection" which met incoming prisoners,
 determining which would be retained for work and experimentation, or which would be sent immediatlely to the gas chambers.
Mengele's favorite interest were twins. Almost all of Mengele's experiments were of no scientific value. Ignoring
the lack of ethics involved he attempted ot change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations
and other brutal surgeries. The children of Mengele's experiments were almost always murdered afterward for dissection,
if they survived the experiment itself.
Josef Mengele left Auschwitz and went to Gross-Rosen concentration camp. In April 1945, he fled westward
disguised as a German infantry. He was captured as a POW and held near Nuremburg. The Allies released him, having no
idea that he was under their midst. Despite international efforts to track him down, he was never apprehended and lived for
35 years hiding under various aliases. He was not tracked down by Nazi hunters until June 6, 1985 when his body
was found and identified after a combined effort of American, West German and South American authorities. In 1992, DNA
tests confirmed his identity. 
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