Argentina’s Secret Files Reveal Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele’s Open Life in Exile

Newly declassified documents released by Argentine President Javier Milei have exposed how one of history’s most notorious Nazi war criminals, Josef Mengele, lived openly in Argentina for years while evading justice. The files detail how bureaucratic disorganization and lack of coordinated action allowed the infamous Auschwitz doctor to escape arrest despite authorities being fully aware of his identity and whereabouts.

Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death,” was a Nazi physician who conducted brutal medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners, particularly twins, under the guise of scientific research. The declassified archives contain eyewitness testimony describing his sadistic nature, including accounts of him torturing twins in front of each other after sending their parents to gas chambers.

The documents reveal that Argentine authorities clearly understood who Mengele was by the mid-1950s. They knew he had entered Argentina in 1949 using an Italian passport issued under the alias Helmut Gregor, which he used to obtain an official immigrant ID card in 1950.

What’s particularly striking in these files is how Mengele eventually felt so secure in Argentina that he began using his real name. In 1956, he obtained a legalized copy of his birth certificate from the West German Embassy in Buenos Aires and requested his ID be officially amended to reflect his true identity – a remarkable indication of how protected he felt.

“I met Mengele. I knew him well. I saw him many times in the Auschwitz camp, with his SS colonel’s uniform and, on top of it, the white doctor’s coat,” stated José Furmanski, an Argentine citizen born in Poland who had been a Mengele victim, in an interview contained within the files. Furmanski, a twin, provided vivid testimony of the horrific experiments performed on him and others.

“He gathered twins of all ages in the camp and subjected them to experiments that always ended in death. Between the children, the elderly, and women… what horrors. I saw him separate a mother from her daughter and send one to certain death. We will never forget,” Furmanski recounted.

The Argentine intelligence files also tracked Mengele’s business interests in the country. Reports cite a possible visit by Mengele’s father to Argentina to financially support his son by investing in a medical laboratory business in Buenos Aires. By 1958, Mengele had become a partner in “FADRO-FARM” laboratories, contributing 10,000 pesos in capital.

Despite mounting evidence and international pressure, Argentina’s response was hampered by fragmented information sharing among various agencies. The archives – containing Spanish, German, Portuguese, and English documents – reveal how intelligence was compiled but rarely acted upon effectively. A West German arrest warrant and extradition request issued in 1959 was denied by a local judge who claimed it was based on “political persecution.”

The documents also shed light on the networks that sheltered Mengele across South America. As pressure increased in Argentina, Mengele fled to Paraguay in 1959, where he gained citizenship and protection from dictator Alfredo Stroessner, whose family originated from the same Bavarian town as Mengele.

By 1960, Argentine intelligence was mostly tracking Mengele through press reports, noting he had clandestinely entered Brazil through the tri-border area near Paraná state. There, he was aided by German Brazilian farmers who were Nazi sympathizers, living under aliases including Peter Hochbichler and a Portuguese version of his real name, José Mengele.

The files corroborate Argentina’s ambiguous post-war position – officially cooperating with Western democracies while demonstrating reluctance to confront how deeply Nazi fugitives had embedded themselves within the country’s social and political landscape. The disconnected bureaucracy and lack of urgency regarding war criminals meant that arrest warrants, searches, and surveillance were often conducted too late, after Mengele had been tipped off.

Mengele ultimately died in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming in the coastal Brazilian town of Bertioga. He was buried under the false name Wolfgang Gerhardt, but his remains were exhumed and positively identified by Brazilian authorities in 1985, with DNA testing confirming the findings in 1992.

The declassified Argentine archives provide a disturbing glimpse into how one of history’s most wanted war criminals managed to live in relative freedom for decades after the war, protected by sympathetic networks and bureaucratic inaction across multiple South American countries.