Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 in the town of Guenzburg, Germany (now called Bayern), the 2nd son of a wealthy Bavarian family. It is ironic that Mengele began his academic life with a strict Catholic upbringing which would have necessarily taught of 'The Creation' - the dogma that "God created the world and all men are equal". (Strict Catholicism negates evolutionary science and considers the study of it sinful). His career aspirations must have been strongly motivated by the contrast between this and the burgeoning era of scientific enlightenment under the National Socialist Regime.
In his collegiate years he became an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi movement, working with them to advance medicine and society from intellectual impoverishment at the hands of the Christian churches.
Josef Mengele studied at the universities of Munich, Bonn, Vienna and Frankfurt, eventually working under Professor Otmar von Verschuer at the Frankfurt University Institute of Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. He was the editor of a medical journal entitled 'Der Erbarzt' ('The Genetic Physician') and also published three well respected papers which primarily focused on the biological differences between the races. His areas of expertise were Human Anthropology and Genetic Science. He spoke Latin and Greek and earned Ph.D. Degrees.
In 1931, at age 20, Mengele joined the Stahlhelm (a nationalist organisation of German war veterans). He joined the SA in 1934 and recieved his NSDAP party membership in 1938. Some accounts indicate that he met Adolf Hitler while studying in Munich. During this period he married Irene Schoenbein, the elegant daughter of a university professor.
Dr. Mengele began his military service in 1938. From 1940 he served in the reserve medical corps. He then spent three years with a Waffen SS unit, seeing action in Russia with the Viking division. He was wounded during the Eastern campaign and declared medically unfit for duty along with the highest accolades for bravery and was then promoted to the rank of Hauptsturmfuhrer (Captain). His decorations include the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class.
While Dr. Mengele is probably guilty of some of the notorious crimes of which he has been accused, there is also strong evidence indicating that his research on twins in KL Auschwitz had led him to some of the earliest progress in the discovery of DNA as the underlying cause of hereditary traits. Of course it was not until the 1950s that James Watson and Francis Crick used X-ray crystallography to reveal DNA's double-helical structure, but the ground level work in the newborn field of genetic research obviously occured durring the WW2 years and certainly would have flowered under circumstances of human in-vivo research. Hitler had passed a law making animal vivisection a criminal offense.
Dr. Mengele was working with a substance called METHYLENE BLUE STAIN. Methylene Blue Stain is commonly used today for quantitative or qualitative examination of RNA & DNA. On a hybridization membrane, RNA & DNA bands stain blue against the white to bluish background of the membrane. It has been falsely speculated that Mengele was using Methylene Blue Stain to "change his subjects' eye color merely for cosmetic effect".
In 1945 Dr. Mengele's work was stolen, mutually by the Soviets, U.S., & British Allies.
The Man ranking directly Mengele's superior, Professor Otmar von Verschuer, had given the orders for every experiment Mengele performed as camp doctor. To have disobeyed these orders at any time would have cost him his life. Professor von Verschuer was also responsible for arranging financing for the research done at Auschwitz. This man, von Verschuer, suffered no war crimes accusations, unlike Mengele, and he continued researching and writing until his death in 1967.
Josef Mengele spent the remainder of his years in exile and poverty in various South American countries. During this period he was stripped of his university degrees. His health began to fail and in his 60s he authored his autobiography, which has been completely obscured by the political powers that be.
He died in 1979 from a stroke at Beritoga Beach in Brazil.
THIS SITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A DENIAL OR DEFAMATION OF THE HOLOCAUST, BUT RATHER IT IS DEDICATED TO THE 30 MILLION MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE 3rd REICH WHO WERE KILLED BY THE ALLIED FORCES WITHOUT FORMAL RECOGNITION, AND ESPECIALLY TO THE 3 MILLION GERMAN HEROES WHO FOUGHT TO THE LAST DROP OF BLOOD FOR THEIR COUNTRY AND WERE HANDED OVER TO THE DEATH CAMPS OF COMMUNIST RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE WAR. THE OMINOUS FATE OF THESE MEN IS NOT EVEN DOCUMENTED.
