Throughout the history of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, few individuals come close in notorious villainous malice than that of “renegade doctor,” Josef Mengele (Nomberg-Przytyk 44). Often given the title of the Angel of Death, Mengele worked for 21 months as a doctor and researcher in Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1943 and 1945 (Jewish Virtual Library). Although the atrocities of the Holocaust are widely known as one of the most devastating and dark periods in human history, the story of “blood sucker Mengele,” is one of the more sinister in the narrative of the Holocaust (Nomberg-Przytyk 25).
Dr. Josef Mengele’s history leading up to his work at Auschwitz is critical in understanding how he came to embody Nazi scientific and racial ideals. …show more content…
Mengele took on several roles while in Auschwitz, most notable was his role as a selection officer. Known as the “Angel of Death” or the “White Angel” for his exceptionally cold demeanor during the selection process. He actually worked as a physician for the selection process more often than other physicians in the camp (USHMM). The majority of his notoriety came from postwar accounts from victims. It was described that he often was seen on train platforms in Auschwitz looking for twins, described as nearly salivating when he found a pair of twins (USHMM). Moreover, he was especially cruel in selection process and would sometimes shoot parents and children refusing to separate on the spot (Bülow). Accounts from Nomberg-Przytyk illustrate how Dr. Mengele would randomly select women, ones that he thought were unattractive, disliked or other arbitrary reasons and would send them to be murdered (Nomberg-Przytyk 56). Though Mengele’s involvement in the selection process was one of his most notorious roles, his nefarious research and torture of …show more content…
Though he was not head of the medical team at Auschwitz, when he first arrived he was in charge of the “gypsy” camp (USHMM). He studied the treatment of Noma and gangrene in the “Gypsy Family Camp” by intentionally infecting prisoners, often leading in patients’ deaths. He would often kill children and send their organs, or entire heads back to German universities in jars for study (Jewish Virtual Library). After the camp’s liquidation, He became the Chief Camp Physician of Auschwitz II/ Birkenau (USHMM). From there he had full license to do whatever he wanted to the prisoners, and experimented on many of them. He has a strong interest in heterochromia. He used to collect eyes of victims in efforts to research changing eye color artificially (USHMM). Mengele also had a fixation on identical twin children. He would often kill and dissect them and do experiments on their corpses (Bülow). When Auschwitz was liberated, only 200 of the original 3,000 twin children remained (Jewish Virtual Library). An account states that “without blinking an eye, Mengele [would] inflict physical agonies on a three-year-old child,” and seemingly feel no remorse, having been so engrained in the Nazi ideology that made him see non-Aryans as infirior (Nomberg-Przytyk 92). He would conduct his experiments, which would be seen as torture, and then murder subjects
Dr. Josef Mengele’s history leading up to his work at Auschwitz is critical in understanding how he came to embody Nazi scientific and racial ideals. …show more content…
Mengele took on several roles while in Auschwitz, most notable was his role as a selection officer. Known as the “Angel of Death” or the “White Angel” for his exceptionally cold demeanor during the selection process. He actually worked as a physician for the selection process more often than other physicians in the camp (USHMM). The majority of his notoriety came from postwar accounts from victims. It was described that he often was seen on train platforms in Auschwitz looking for twins, described as nearly salivating when he found a pair of twins (USHMM). Moreover, he was especially cruel in selection process and would sometimes shoot parents and children refusing to separate on the spot (Bülow). Accounts from Nomberg-Przytyk illustrate how Dr. Mengele would randomly select women, ones that he thought were unattractive, disliked or other arbitrary reasons and would send them to be murdered (Nomberg-Przytyk 56). Though Mengele’s involvement in the selection process was one of his most notorious roles, his nefarious research and torture of …show more content…
Though he was not head of the medical team at Auschwitz, when he first arrived he was in charge of the “gypsy” camp (USHMM). He studied the treatment of Noma and gangrene in the “Gypsy Family Camp” by intentionally infecting prisoners, often leading in patients’ deaths. He would often kill children and send their organs, or entire heads back to German universities in jars for study (Jewish Virtual Library). After the camp’s liquidation, He became the Chief Camp Physician of Auschwitz II/ Birkenau (USHMM). From there he had full license to do whatever he wanted to the prisoners, and experimented on many of them. He has a strong interest in heterochromia. He used to collect eyes of victims in efforts to research changing eye color artificially (USHMM). Mengele also had a fixation on identical twin children. He would often kill and dissect them and do experiments on their corpses (Bülow). When Auschwitz was liberated, only 200 of the original 3,000 twin children remained (Jewish Virtual Library). An account states that “without blinking an eye, Mengele [would] inflict physical agonies on a three-year-old child,” and seemingly feel no remorse, having been so engrained in the Nazi ideology that made him see non-Aryans as infirior (Nomberg-Przytyk 92). He would conduct his experiments, which would be seen as torture, and then murder subjects