One of the most notorious Nazi war criminals, Josef Mengele, has returned to the spotlight after the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service published a 200-page classified file on the German doctor known as the "Angel of Death" for his horrific medical experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz death camp during World War II.
Mengele served at Auschwitz, in Nazi-occupied Poland, where an estimated 1.1 million people were killed, of whom about 1 million were Jews.
There, he became known for the inhumane experiments he conducted on prisoners, including children, which he presented as scientific research. His actions are considered among the most characteristic examples of crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime.
New documents and the mystery of Switzerland
After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Mengele managed to escape using an International Red Cross travel document with false information.
Like many former Nazi officials, he hid for years in Latin America while internationally wanted for his crimes. He died in 1979 in Brazil, when he drowned while swimming off the country's coast.
However, new documents released by Swiss authorities include material that had been handed over to police and leave open the possibility that Mengele had returned to Switzerland after escaping from Germany or had planned to enter the country using a different name.
According to the German news agency DPA, this information had been of interest to historians who had been trying for years to determine whether Mengele entered Switzerland while wanted as a war criminal without being detected by the authorities.
Swiss authorities had decided that the documents would remain secret until 2071, citing security reasons and the need to protect the personal data of the people mentioned in the file.
However, this decision was challenged in court by historian Gerard Wettstein, who appealed to the Swiss Federal Administrative Court and succeeded in overturning the access restrictions.
Following the court's ruling, the files were posted online, although some parts have been redacted to protect the sources of the information and the personal data of third parties.
The dossier was compiled by the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office, the predecessor to today's federal intelligence agency.
The material was transferred to the Swiss Federal Archives in 2001, where it remained for more than two decades before being given to researchers.
The release of the documents is expected to provide new evidence about Mengele's movements after the war and shed more light on the network of escapes that allowed some Nazi criminals to evade justice for years.
The "Angel of Death" of Auschwitz may have died almost half a century ago, but the search for the full truth about his routes and connections continues to this day. ©LAPSI.al
