How a trained anthropologist turned the Auschwitz death camp into a laboratory for genocide.

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Josef Mengele, a doctor and SS officer, used his position at Auschwitz to conduct horrific medical experiments on prisoners. While he is infamous for his role in selecting victims for the gas chambers, his pseudoscientific obsession with racial purity led him to perform barbaric procedures on twins and other inmates.

Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz in 1943, where he served as a camp doctor until 1945. His tenure was defined by the process of Selektion, where he and other SS doctors determined the fate of arriving prisoners. The young and healthy were often sent to forced labor, while the elderly, infirm, and young children were sent directly to the gas chambers. Auschwitz, the most lethal of the Nazi extermination camps, functioned as a massive industrial complex designed for the 'final solution,' housing thousands in subcamps and utilizing slave labor for German corporations like IG Farben.

Beyond his role in mass murder, Mengele utilized the camp as a site for pseudoscientific racial studies. He subjected thousands of prisoners to brutal medical experiments, including sterilization through massive radiation doses and uterine injections. His specific focus on twins was intended to provide data to support the expansion of the 'Aryan race.' These experiments were conducted under inhumane conditions, with victims suffering from extreme malnutrition and exhaustion. Those who survived these procedures but could no longer work were frequently sent back to Birkenau to be gassed.

After the war, Mengele managed to escape internment and went underground. He eventually fled to South America, where he lived for decades while being sought by various international authorities and Nazi hunters. Despite numerous extradition requests and clandestine efforts by agencies like Mossad to capture him, he remained at large until his death in 1979. His remains were only positively identified years later through forensic and DNA analysis, marking the end of a long, failed pursuit of justice for his crimes at the Auschwitz complex.

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