Switzerland to open secret files on Auschwitz 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Switzerland to open secret files on Auschwitz 'Angel of Death' Mengele6 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleImogen FoulkesBernUllstein Bild / GettyNazi SS doctor Josef Mengele sent as many as 400,000 people, most of them Jews, to their deathsThe Swiss Federal Intelligence Service has said it will finally open long-sealed files on the notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, but without saying when. Mengele fled Europe after World War Two, but for years there have been rumours that he spent time in Switzerland, even though an international warrant was out for his arrest. Historians have repeatedly requested access to the files, but until now the Swiss authorities have refused.

Mengele was a doctor who served in Germany's Waffen SS. He was posted to the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where he selected those to be sent to the gas chambers – an estimated 1. 1 million people died, including about a million Jews.

The Details

Known as the Angel of Death, he also selected prisoners, primarily children and twins, for sadistic medical experiments of dubious value, before sending them to their deaths as well. After the war Mengele, like many high-ranking Nazis, quickly changed both his uniform, and his name. With the help of his false identity, he was issued Red Cross travel documents at the Swiss consulate in Genoa in northern Italy, and used them to flee to South America.

The Red Cross intended the documents for thousands of people across Europe who had been displaced or made stateless by the war, but Nazis seeking to escape prosecution also managed to acquire them, something for which the Red Cross has subsequently apologised. via Getty ImagesThe International Committee of the Red Cross office in Genoa issued these passports in false names for Nazi war criminals (from L to R) Josef Mengele, Klaus Barbie and Adolf EichmannSo what is Mengele's connection with Switzerland? Although he fled Europe in 1949, Mengele had a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps with his son Rolf in 1956.

That information has been known since the 1980s. Officially, after that, he spent the rest of his life in South America. But Swiss historian Regula Bochsler always wondered whether Mengele returned again, crucially, after an international warrant for his arrest had been issued in 1959.

What Experts Say

Bochsler, while researching Switzerland's possible role as a transit country for fleeing Nazis, discovered that in June 1961 the Austrian intelligence service warned the Swiss that Mengele was travelling under an assumed name, and might be on Swiss territory. Meanwhile, Mengele's wife had rented an apartment in Zurich, and applied for permanent residency. "There seems to be evidence Mengele was planning a trip to Europe in 1959," the historian told the .

"Why did Mrs Mengele rent an apartment in Zurich? " The apartment was in a modest suburb, and the Mengele family had the wealth for something much fancier. But it was close to the international airport.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.