Switzerland to Release Mengele Files

Swiss intelligence has agreed to grant historian Gérard Wettstein access to files concerning Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor, after a years-long legal battle. Historians Regula Bochsler and Wettstein have long sought these records, believing they contain information about Mengele’s potential continued presence in Switzerland after 1949.

Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death,” performed cruel medical experiments in Auschwitz, where roughly 1.1 million people died, including about one million Jews. After the war, he fled Europe with the help of false documents issued by the Swiss Red Cross, intended for displaced persons but also used by Nazis evading prosecution.

Evidence suggests Mengele wintered in the Swiss Alps with his son in 1956, and his wife rented a Zurich apartment in 1961 near the airport. Though Swiss authorities previously denied access citing national security and family privacy, the files will now be released under unspecified conditions.

Some historians doubt the files will reveal much about Mengele himself, suspecting they may relate to foreign intelligence agencies. The full extent of what the documents contain remains unclear.