Dr. Josef Mengele : “The Angel Of Death” - Police News

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Facts and Fiction Concerning the Proper Identification
of the skeleton of Josef Mengele – “the Angel of Death”
Dr. Robert von Zieten, Ph.D.
professorbones.police-news@usa.com
In the summer of 1982 we were able to perform an intensive
Forensic Anthropological examination of the
assumed remains of the infamous concentration camp
doctor Josef Mengele housed in the Institute of Forensic
Medicine at the University of São Paulo, Argentina.
Prior to that our first official requests for an examination
of the skeleton of Josef Mengele were denied by the Argentine
officials. Joseph Mengele had worked in the Institute
of Anthropology of the University of Frankfurt,
Germany, from 1936 to 1942. He was the assistant of the
chair- holder of anthropology, my predecessor, Prof. Dr.
Dr. Ottmar Freiherr (Baron) von Verschuer. The heads
of the University of Frankfurt (Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Unversity), the Chancellor and the President, were not
in favor of our project and tried forbid it. A personal visit
and connection to one of the members of the Institute
in São Paulo made it finally possible for us to conduct
a detailed Forensic Anthropological examination of the
probable Mengele- skeleton. We examined the skeleton
in detail and came to the conclusion that the remains
were those of a male skeleton aged between 50 to 60
years. This age estimation was based on proper anthropological
and anatomical determinations used to analyze
a skull and pelvis, as well as all of the bones of the post-
cranial skeleton of an individual in question. The result
of this specific age estimation indicated that the skeleton
could not belong to the much older Josef Mengele, who
was reported to have died when he was 68 years old.
Those specialists, who had conducted prior research
and examination of the skeleton, neglected the facts that
Mengele had broken his right fibula at an age of 15 as well
as a healed fracture on one finger of his right hand, the
Metacarpale radiale, of his forefinger. He broke his finger
in 1940 at a time when he still worked in the Institute of
Anthropology at the University of Frankfurt. The fracture
could be confirmed by his friend and colleague Dr.
G. L. Strangely enough none of the bones of the skeleton
which we examined showed any signs of healed fractures
which should have been evident. In our opinion, the assignment
of this skeleton to Josef Mengele was a “convenient
identification” especially useful to the German
authorities which wanted to close the case and the search
for the Nazi criminal permanently.
According to the official records Mengele had died, during
a swimming accident in the ocean, suffering a heart
attack, on February 7, 1979. This again was a false assumption
and statement, since Mengele could not swim.
Colleagues attest that he actually hated salt water. He was
born in 1911 and his age would have been, at the time
of death, 68. We also arrived at the conclusion that the
skeleton we examined was at least eight years younger
than the actual age of the war criminal. One of the main
indicators assigning a proper age to a skeleton is the degree
of ossification of certain sutures of the skull and
these clearly indicated a younger age for the individual
we examined. The skeleton we analyzed had most of the
sutures still open and some were only partially ossified.
Ossification of the sutures of the skull can be somewhat
different in modern day races and ethnical groups. Closure
of sutures and ossification could also be different if
the individual had suffered certain diseases. It can be assumed
that a 68 year old Mengele would have nearly all
the sutures closed and ossified.
My specific interest in the correct and valid identification
of Joseph Mengele were the numerous reports in the
press and on TV as to his whereabouts and identification.
Josef Mengele had worked as an assistant to the director
of the Institute of Anthropology at the University of
Frankfurt from 1936 to 1942. When his boss, Prof. Dr.
Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, became the director of
the “Kaiser Wilhelm Institute” in Berlin, Josef Mengele
followed him to Berlin. My direct predecessor Prof. Dr.
Peter Kramp had in his private possession a number of
photographs and documents showing all the members of
the Institute, including Mengele, before 1945.
It was easy to reconstruct all facial features of a living person
using a skull. The reconstruction of the facial features
of the skull in question, housed in the Institute of Forensic
Medicine in São Paulo, were not those of Mengele. I was
hired as a director of the Institute of Anthropology of the
University of Frankfurt in 1973 and immediately tried
to find some evidence of the former work of Mengele.
Most of the material was destroyed by the University,
with the exception of some photographs which were in
the possession of Prof. Dr. Hans Fleischhacker and his
academic assistant. When the latter retired he gave me
all of the photographs showing former members of the
Institute, including those of Josef Mengele. In 1976 Prof.
Fleischhacker introduced me to a visitor with the name
of Rudolf Weiss who claimed to be the former assistant
of Prof. Mollison at the University of Munich. His facial
features seemed somewhat familiar to me but I could not
place him exactly at that time. It was easy for me later to
research all of the material available at the Institute and I
came to the conclusion that the visitor Rudolf Weiss was
actually Josef Mengele.
Since at that time an intensive search for Josef Megele
was evident, I reported the visit to the authorities of the
university but they did not seem to have any interest. By
the way, the founder of the institute, Prof. Franz Weidenreich,
was fired, along with another 127 jewish professors
and academic personnel of the university, in 1938
in order to establish a new “Nazi Anthropology”. Being
an American anthropologist, I had little knowledge of
the internal affairs of the University of Frankfurt. When
I asked for any anthropological materials of the time of
Hitler between 1936 and 1945 they informed me that it
had all been destroyed. I did find, however, stashed away
and marked as personal property of the director of the
institute, a small library of 312 volumes of anthropological
literature in the basement of the institute. This library
was the property of another assistant, Dr. G. Lange, who
sold it to me for a substantial amount of money. He also
told me that most of the books were property of Josef
Mengele. This seems to be the only library intact containing
that type of anthropological literature, since most of
it was destroyed in all German universities towards the
end of WW II. I donated the volumes to our National
Library in Washington.
Mengele performed in the “Institute of Anthropology
and Racial Hygiene” so-called “Vaterschaftsgutachten”
(paternity tests) which were, before DNA tests were
available in the 1990s, administered by anthropologists
in order to determine paternity of an individual. Alongside
these paternity tests the anthropologists performed
“racial examinations” in order to find out whether individuals
were jewish or not. All of the papers are still located
in the archives of the university of Frankfurt.
Presumably DNA tests were performed on the remains of
J. Mengele housed in Sao Paulo. The son of Josef Mengele,
Rolf Mengele, confirmed that these were those of his father.
How he was able to do this, lacking any knowledge
of anatomy, is a miracle. A detailed analysis report on
these remains was never published and there seems to be
great doubt and skepticism as to the authenticity of the
corpse, assigned to Josef Mengele, housed in Argentina.
PN
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