—
Credits:
Host – Simon Whistler
Author – Steve Theunissen
Producer – Samuel Avila
Executive Producer – Shell Harris
—
—
Transcript Provided by YouTube:
00:00
just the mention of his name can send a
00:02
chill up the spine in a place full of
00:04
horror he was the most feared monster of
00:06
them all we’re of course talking about
00:08
the Angel of Death Josef Mengele
00:10
although trained as a doctor to preserve
00:12
life he brought a sadistic cruelty to
00:14
the experiments that ended the lives of
00:16
so many and his victims of choice when
00:19
they were children in this week’s by
00:20
graphics we reveal the depraved life of
00:23
the monster of Auschwitz dr. Josef
00:25
Mengele yes if Mengele entered the world
00:38
on the 16th of March 1911 in the German
00:40
Bavarian town of goons burg after three
00:43
miscarriages he was the first born of
00:45
Karl and well Perga Mengele karl was the
00:47
owner of a farm machine factory which
00:49
turned to producing munitions when war
00:51
broke out in 1914 the manglers would go
00:53
on to have two more sons but Joseph was
00:55
the firm favorite of his mother while
00:58
poker was an obese woman who had a Stern
01:00
reputation and a voracious appetite she
01:03
doted on her eldest son who was much
01:05
closer to him than she was to her
01:07
husband for his part Josef proved to be
01:09
a quiet child whose main goal was to
01:11
please his overbearing mother at school
01:13
Josef he was an average student he
01:15
struggled to keep his grades up at the
01:17
standard that his mother expected and
01:18
when he was fifteen he contracted the
01:20
serious bone marrow disease
01:22
osteomyelitis the disease which was
01:24
often fatal in those days kept him off
01:26
school for six months returning to class
01:28
he was seriously behind his peers
01:30
academically over the next two years he
01:32
showed a remarkable level of
01:34
self-discipline to not only catch up but
01:36
surpass many of his fellow students by
01:39
the age of 17 he had outgrown his
01:41
shyness and developed into a handsome
01:43
focused and driven young man who was
01:45
popular with both teachers and
01:46
classmates
01:48
you
01:51
in April 1930 the 19 year old passed his
01:55
high school exams and gained acceptance
01:56
into the medical and philosophy
01:58
faculties at Munich University he had
02:01
decided to become a doctor Mengele stood
02:04
out from the other men on campus
02:06
he was always impeccably dressed and had
02:08
developed the air of a gentleman he
02:10
treated women with old-fashioned dignity
02:12
and was a very good dancer all these
02:14
traits got him quickly noticed by the
02:16
ladies with the results that his social
02:18
calendar was usually pretty full during
02:20
his first year of university Mengele
02:22
began to show an interest in politics he
02:25
joined the steel helmets in March of
02:27
1931 a paramilitary group who advocated
02:29
a return to the pre-war monarchy the
02:32
steel helmets were a stepping stone in
02:34
the National Socialist or Nazi Party
02:36
which was promoted in beer halls as well
02:39
as on university campuses the Nazis
02:41
advocated a return of German pride and
02:44
pureness and the removal of racial
02:46
impurities these ideas they appealed to
02:48
Mengele and seemed to mesh with the
02:50
social Darwinism that he thought was
02:52
being taught in the lecture halls he
02:54
became fascinated with eugenics
02:56
particularly the idea that a population
02:58
could be made more perfect through
03:00
selective breeding of those who had the
03:02
most desirable characteristics it would
03:05
also help to weed out undesirable traits
03:07
by the elimination of the weak and the
03:09
feeble
03:14
while the Nazis believed in eugenics for
03:17
them the process of generational
03:19
selective breeding it was too slow they
03:22
were determined to weed out the weak
03:24
right now
03:25
the Aryan race could simply no longer
03:27
stands being contaminated by inferior
03:29
races such as the Slavs
03:31
and the Jews both of whom were
03:32
considered untermensch
03:34
or subhuman these beliefs were
03:36
enthusiastically embraced by the young
03:38
and impressionable Josef Mengele in 1935
03:42
Mengele was awarded a PhD in
03:43
anthropology his thesis was entitled
03:45
racial morphological research on the
03:48
lower jaw section of four
03:50
racial groups the paper was free of any
03:52
racial bias and set out to prove
03:54
empirically by science alone that the
03:56
German was a superior breeding and a
03:58
better human being
04:00
a year later Mengele graduated with a
04:02
medical degree he’s been for months an
04:04
intern at Leipzig University clinic
04:05
before joining the staff of Germany’s
04:07
leading racial expert this was dr. omar
04:10
free her von versa and he was based at
04:12
the Institute for heredity biology and
04:15
racial purity located at the University
04:17
of Frankfurt Mandela’s job at the
04:19
Institute was to examine people who were
04:21
suspected of breaking the Nuremberg Laws
04:23
to see whether or not they were Jews he
04:25
and his colleagues created thousands of
04:27
files which would turn out to be
04:28
devastating in future years when people
04:31
were rounded up for transportation to
04:32
concentration camps in May of 1937
04:35
Mengele officially joined the Nazi Party
04:37
he became a member of the Nazi doctors
04:39
party and then in May of 1938 the shoot
04:42
Staffan or SS the SS had been created as
04:45
Hitler’s personal protection squad but
04:47
it expanded its role to the running of
04:49
concentration camps the leader of the SS
04:51
was Heinrich Himmler a meticulous
04:53
organiser who had plans to make the
04:55
still small organization as powerful as
04:57
the national army at the time Mengele
04:59
joined the SS was an elite group that
05:01
only allowed the best specimens of Aryan
05:04
manhood into its ranks
05:06
[Music]
05:10
at about the same time as he became a
05:12
member of the SS Mangler became engaged
05:15
to Irene show in mind the daughter of a
05:17
professor at Frankfurt University six
05:19
years younger than Joseph Irene was a
05:21
blonde haired beauty and made the
05:23
perfect compliments to the handsome
05:25
athletic looking young doctor when it
05:27
came to getting married however there
05:29
was a bit of a problem while Yosef was
05:30
able to show documentation of his Aryan
05:32
purity Irene could not prove that her
05:35
grandfather was 100% Aryan it was only
05:38
the influence of the Mangala family that
05:40
smoothed the way for the wedding which
05:42
took place in July of 1939 the failure
05:45
to fully prove Irene’s ancestry
05:47
precluded the manglers from inclusion in
05:49
the kinship book of the SS which
05:51
included couples who could prove their
05:53
Aryan ancestry back to 1750 as a result
05:56
Mengele was deprived of the swords and
05:58
spoons wort which was given to an SS man
06:00
on the birth of a child after his three
06:03
months of marriage Mengele was called
06:04
for a three-month stint in the Army he
06:06
was sent to the Tyrolean mountain region
06:08
possessing a high level of physical
06:10
fitness and being an adept hiker he
06:12
excelled in his service having completed
06:14
his three-month service he returned to
06:15
his job at Frankfurt University but with
06:18
the coming of war in 1939 national
06:20
mobilization was instituted Mengele was
06:23
rejected on the first draft because he
06:24
had had a kidney infection as a child
06:28
[Music]
06:31
in June of 1940 Mengele was finally
06:34
called up becoming a second left tannins
06:36
in the waffen-ss he was put in a no
06:38
combat position working in the
06:40
genealogical section of the race and
06:42
resettlement office by June of 1941 with
06:44
the onset of Operation Barbarossa there
06:46
was an urgent need for men to serve on
06:48
the Eastern Front Mengele was pulled out
06:51
of the office and sent to the Russian
06:52
front he proved to be a courageous
06:54
soldier winning the Iron Cross second
06:56
class at the beginning of 1942 Mengele
06:59
transferred to the Scandinavian Viking
07:00
SS division where he served as a field
07:03
doctor again he proved discouraged under
07:05
fire winning the Iron Cross first class
07:07
when he pulled two men from a burning
07:09
tank in November of 1942 he suffered
07:11
serious wounds and was taken off the
07:13
frontlines after a period of recovery he
07:15
returned to the race and resettlement
07:17
office he gained a promotion to captain
07:19
and then in mid 1943 was given what was
07:21
to him a dream job this was a practical
07:24
eugenics researcher this meant that he
07:26
was able to indulge all of the wackiest
07:28
eugenics theories testing them out on
07:30
living human subjects the human subjects
07:39
who would be mangle as guinea pigs were
07:40
to be found at the auschwitz-birkenau
07:42
concentration camp he obtained posting
07:44
to the camp and set about extending his
07:46
anthropological research into heredity
07:48
Mengele was not the first doctor to use
07:50
concentration camp inmates for research
07:52
purposes in Birkin vault and de Cao Jews
07:55
were injected with bacteria exposed to
07:57
all manner of deadly diseases and struck
08:00
with rifle buds repeatedly to see how
08:02
long it would take for them to suffer
08:03
irreversible brain damage at Auschwitz
08:06
itself doctor Horst Schumann had been
08:08
conducting sterilization experiments
08:10
once castrating 90 men in a single day
08:12
yes Mengele was to take the scope and
08:15
barbarity of his experiments to an
08:17
entirely new level outfits had been
08:19
elected as the venue for his work
08:21
because of its out-of-the-way location
08:22
and because it was close to a railway
08:24
junction with tracks coming from all
08:26
over Europe Mengele arrived at Auschwitz
08:28
on the 23rd of May 1943 the next day he
08:32
participated in his first selection this
08:34
involved selecting which of the new
08:35
inmate arrivals were to live and which
08:37
were to die on that day alone he sent
08:40
1035 gypsies to the gas chamber as was
08:43
his nature Mengele was
08:45
actively dressed during these selections
08:46
he wore a white SS medical uniform white
08:49
gloves and polished black boots his face
08:52
was emotionless as he decided who is to
08:54
die by a simple flick of his wrist his
08:56
constant chain-smoking and air of
08:58
nonchalance presented a mystifying yet
09:00
terrifying sight for the bewildered new
09:02
arrivals during his time at Auschwitz
09:04
Mengele oversaw selection on 74
09:07
transports 80% of new arrivals were
09:09
condemned to death immediately all
09:11
children under the age of 14 were killed
09:13
as with the old in the infer Mandela
09:15
seemed to enjoy this aspect of his job
09:18
and he was known to say here the Jews
09:20
and through the doors and leave through
09:22
the chimney mangle is passion however
09:24
was for scientific research he
09:26
instructed the guards to seek out those
09:28
who were deformed overly tall midgets or
09:30
he will aim his most prized subjects
09:33
were twins especially if they were
09:34
children from his earliest days at
09:36
university Mangala had a fascination
09:38
with twins
09:39
he believed that by studying them he
09:40
could discover the secret to genetic
09:42
manipulation indeed it was his search
09:44
for twins that motivated him to attend
09:46
so many arrival selections during his
09:48
time at Auschwitz he managed to find
09:50
1500 pairs of twins that were used as
09:53
human guinea pigs only 100 pairs
09:55
survived the twins and other research
09:57
subjects who were selected on arrival
09:58
would be marched to living quarters at
10:00
the Birkenau about 2 miles away there
10:02
they lived in appalling conditions
10:04
surrounded by rotting corpses and
10:05
starving adults once established in
10:08
their disgraceful living quarters the
10:09
children had to complete an intensive
10:11
questionnaire in which they had to
10:13
indicate their age height eye and hair
10:15
color ethnic backgrounds as well as any
10:17
health problems older children assisted
10:19
young ones to complete performs
10:20
desperate to have everything completed
10:22
to the satisfaction of the guards
10:24
children would then be interviewed by a
10:26
Mangler himself who would take extensive
10:28
notes and then have a file for each
10:29
child drawn up he was determined to have
10:32
his research seen as legitimate and so
10:34
he went to great lengths to keep
10:35
everything official in preparation for
10:37
experimentation the children were
10:39
cleaned bathed and dressed in clean
10:41
pajamas
10:41
they were then taken by Red Cross
10:43
vehicles to one of Mandela’s research
10:45
laboratories he had established a number
10:47
of labs around the auschwitz-birkenau
10:48
area for these specific purposes at one
10:51
blood tests and x-rays were taken here
10:53
the children were treated with care
10:54
Mengele would come in regularly to make
10:56
sure that none were being mistreated on
10:58
these
10:58
agency would hand out sweets to the
11:00
children and talk gently and
11:01
reassuringly to them by doing this he
11:04
was able to engender trust which got the
11:06
children onto his experimentation table
11:08
[Music]
11:12
in other labs the most heinous barbarism
11:16
was taking place on a daily basis
11:17
anesthesia was never used so the pain
11:20
that was inflicted on the children can
11:22
hardly even be imagined experiments
11:24
included the removal of specific organs
11:26
or limbs immersion in freezing water the
11:28
injection of dyes and the eyes the
11:30
castration of boys sterilization of
11:32
girls and deliberate infection of wounds
11:34
with gangrene occasionally Mengele would
11:36
organize endurance test experiments this
11:38
involved subjects being given
11:40
increasingly strong voltages of
11:41
electricity until they either died
11:43
became unconscious or went into a coma
11:45
as soon as a twin died its sibling would
11:48
immediately be killed in order to
11:49
provide comparative data during the
11:51
autopsies
11:52
despite manglers attempts to cloak his
11:54
work in legitimacy there was no valid
11:56
scientific reason for any of these
11:58
horrendous experiments doctors who
12:01
assisted Mengele later recorded that it
12:02
seemed as if many of the experiments
12:04
were just inspired purely by sadism in
12:07
addition to his diabolical lab work into
12:10
selection duties with new arrivals
12:11
Mengele occasionally delivered babies
12:13
women who were found to be pregnant were
12:15
immediately gassed however if they were
12:17
near full-term Mengele would deliver the
12:19
baby only to be sent with its mother to
12:21
death one of his greatest amusements was
12:23
to allow for them both to live for some
12:25
time but to tape the mothers breasts so
12:27
that she would be forced to watch her
12:28
baby starve to death of all of his
12:31
atrocities the worst occurred when he
12:33
had a pit dug and a massive violet in
12:35
the yard of Birkenau he then had 300
12:37
children all under the age of 5 thrown
12:39
into the flames unlike the majority of
12:41
Nazi killers Mengele did not have to be
12:43
drugged or drunk in order to carry out
12:45
his murderous work in fact according to
12:47
Jewish survivors who were forced to
12:49
assist in the laboratory’s he was
12:51
enthusiastic in his infliction of
12:53
Cruelty at times his temper would flare
12:55
and exhibit itself with sharp bursts of
12:57
horror on one occasion he smashed an old
12:59
man’s skull Akande simply because he
13:01
wanted to be on his son’s work detail
13:03
within the camps of auschwitz and
13:04
birkenau Mengele had unlimited power
13:07
this combined with his natural sadism
13:08
turned him into a monster
13:10
he was often accompanied on his rounds
13:12
his female equal SS goddamn aggressor a
13:15
21 year old blonde beauty who was almost
13:17
as depraved as he was the two of them
13:19
marched around the camp in immaculate
13:20
uniform the perfect Aryan couple Mangal
13:23
has hatred for the Jews knew no bounds
13:26
he would celebrate Jewish holy days such
13:28
as Yom Kippur by ordering the gassing of
13:30
a thousand children but his extreme
13:32
prejudice could not prevent feelings of
13:34
lust from arising within him on occasion
13:36
went naked young women were paraded in
13:38
front of him on one occasion a beautiful
13:40
15 year old Jewish girl from
13:42
Transylvania stood in front of him
13:43
Mengele was clearly aroused by the girl
13:46
obviously torn inside he and the girl
13:47
selected for special experimentation
13:49
over the next hour he caused such
13:51
deformity to her body that she resembled
13:53
an old decrepit hag he then left her to
13:56
die having overcome his illicit lust by
13:59
early 1944 Mengele had taken to adopting
14:02
a child invariably the little boy would
14:04
physically resemble him and would be
14:06
dressed in a small white medical uniform
14:08
Mengele would walk around the camp and
14:10
in hands with the child providing him
14:11
with sweets and toys within a month the
14:13
doctor would tire of the child and let
14:15
him still hand in hand to the gas
14:17
chamber the cruel of the Mengele was in
14:19
the conducting of his duties the more
14:21
respect he got in the Nazi hierarchy in
14:23
a report written at the end of 1944 out
14:25
of its camp commandant Rudolf Hess wrote
14:28
that Mengele carried out all tasks even
14:30
Zim often under very difficult
14:31
conditions to the complete satisfaction
14:33
of his superiors often using his little
14:36
off-duty time to utilize the scientific
14:39
material at his disposal to make
14:40
valuable contribution to anthropological
14:43
science
14:44
[Music]
14:48
by early 1945 Mengele was at the height
14:51
of his power
14:51
yet he could also read the writing on
14:53
the wall he knew that the war was soon
14:55
lost and that the Russians would overrun
14:57
the camp in early January the crematoria
14:59
had been blown up and healthy prisoners
15:01
were being forced marched to new
15:02
destinations in Germany Mengele
15:04
continued his experiments until the last
15:06
minute but then he busied himself in
15:08
shipping out all of his equipment
15:09
documents and reports then on January
15:11
the 17th of 1945 Joseph Mengele simply
15:14
disappeared from Auschwitz ten days
15:16
later the Russians arrived they
15:18
discovered a burnt-out horror Factory
15:20
the place had been set on fire and the
15:22
Germans like Mengele at flat a few
15:24
thousand survivors more dead than alive
15:26
were found wandering among the ruins
15:28
Mengele had fled to another
15:30
concentration camp further south then as
15:32
the Russians closed in on that camp he
15:34
made for the math housing camp in
15:36
Austria when the Allies approached he
15:38
ditched his Nazi uniform and went on the
15:40
run his freedom it didn’t last long on
15:42
May the second he had joined up with a
15:43
war hospital units the unit soon was
15:45
overrun by the Russians and all the
15:47
Germans were taken into custody when
15:49
arrested main hello was wearing a
15:50
Wehrmacht uniform he proved to be a bad
15:52
prisoner constantly worrying that he
15:54
would be exposed as an SS officer with
15:57
all of the suspected SS men weeded out
15:59
he and the other prisoners were handed
16:01
over to the Americans and then released
16:02
the angel of death appeared to have
16:04
escaped scot-free
16:05
however he knew he would be constantly
16:07
hunted down he was too afraid to return
16:09
to his family so he travelled around
16:11
West Germany and into Soviet occupied
16:13
East Germany for three years he worked
16:15
as a labourer on an Alpine farm in
16:17
Bavaria
16:19
[Music]
16:22
meanwhile the story of menglers
16:24
atrocities have been revealed to the
16:26
world at large as a result he became the
16:28
most sought after Nazi scalp by post-war
16:30
Nazi hunters he made the decision to
16:32
flee Europe walking over the absent
16:34
crossing into Italy in April of 1949 he
16:37
then made his way to South Tyrol where
16:38
he managed to obtain an International
16:40
Red Cross ID card under a false name
16:41
with this he managed to get a Swiss
16:43
passport Mengele then travelled to Genoa
16:46
where he set sail for Buenos Aires
16:48
Argentina upon arriving on Argentinean
16:50
soil Mengele finally felt safe he was
16:53
taken in by argentinian President Juan
16:55
Peron and lived within his palatial
16:57
compound Iran had been a long time
16:59
supporter of Hitler and it opened up his
17:01
country to fleeing Nazis Mengele
17:03
established a comfortable life in
17:05
Argentina he found work as a carpenter a
17:07
trader which he proved to be adept he
17:09
was also a highly respected member of
17:10
the local Nazi community by now his
17:13
father was extremely wealthy as a result
17:15
of his business ventures the old man
17:16
financed international rendevouz usually
17:18
at skiing resource absent from these
17:20
family get-togethers was manglers wife
17:22
Irene who had divorced her husband in
17:24
absent Esha on a family skiing trip to
17:26
Switzerland in 1956 Mengele charmed his
17:29
dead brother calls widow Martha a year
17:31
later they were married Martha and her
17:33
son Rolf moved to Argentina to be with
17:35
Mengele with the backing of his father’s
17:37
money Mengele and his new family they
17:38
lived very well they moved into an
17:40
upmarket villa in a luxurious suburb
17:42
ironically in the midst of many wealthy
17:44
Jewish families he felt so confident in
17:46
his new life that in 1956 he gave up his
17:48
alias and reverted to his real name
17:51
however a determined handful of Nazi
17:53
hunters mainly made up of Holocaust
17:55
survivors were hot on his trail one of
17:57
them Hermann Lange beam managed to get a
17:59
hold of the divorce papers filed by
18:00
Irene they indicated that man Halle was
18:03
living in Buenos Aires Lange been
18:05
pressured the West German government to
18:06
issue an arrest warrant which they did
18:08
on June the 7th 1959 the West German
18:11
Foreign Ministry now demanded that
18:12
Mengele be extradited to face the
18:14
charges
18:15
[Music]
18:20
megalo was warned what was happening and
18:22
fled to Paraguay a year later he moved
18:24
on to Brazil where he settled in with a
18:26
Hungarian couple on a small farm about
18:28
300 miles from Sao Paulo in mid 1962 he
18:31
moved again this time to a 45 hectare
18:33
farm at sierra negra 150 miles north of
18:36
sal power where he bordered with the
18:38
strauss a family in his old age
18:40
Mengele became arrogant surly and
18:41
self-centered he treated other people
18:43
there’s his intellectual and racial
18:45
inferiors in 1964 a war crime trial for
18:48
Mengele was held in absentee shep
18:50
throughout the course of the trial the
18:51
gruesome details of his experiments were
18:53
related often by surviving human guinea
18:55
pigs as a result of these revelations he
18:58
became a hated figure for the vast
18:59
majority of West Germans
19:06
by 1970 the efforts to get Mengele
19:08
extradited had petered out and he had
19:10
largely been forgotten about he
19:12
continued to live an unhappy life with
19:13
the Strasser family who had grown to
19:15
loathe him in 1976 he suffered a stroke
19:17
from which he only partially recovered
19:19
he finally met his end in February of
19:21
1979 suffering a fatal stroke while
19:23
swimming at the beach and bertioga until
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the moment he took his last breath he
19:28
never uttered a single regret about his
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actions at Auschwitz so I really hope
19:34
you enjoyed that by graphics video if
19:36
you did don’t forget to subscribe to
19:37
this channel for brand new biographies
19:39
every Monday and Thursday also I’ve got
19:41
another channel it’s called top tens on
19:43
that channel as you might have guessed
19:44
from the name of it we look at all sorts
19:46
of interesting top 10 lists you can
19:49
check it out through the link on the
19:50
screen now but if you’re looking for
19:52
something else to watch right now why
19:53
not check out a biography from the
19:55
archives or indeed a top tens video over
19:57
there on the right and as always thank
20:00
you for watching
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video.