Switzerland releases 200-page file on Nazi doctor Josef Mengele's possible refuge

Switzerland's federal intelligence service has opened its full archive on Josef Mengele, releasing a 200-page file that historians have sought for years to determine whether the Nazi war criminal found refuge in the neutral country while evading international pursuit.

The dossier was made public Thursday and contains material submitted to Swiss police indicating Mengele may have returned to Switzerland after his initial escape from Germany, or was planning to enter under an assumed identity, according to the German news agency dpa.

The 'Angel of Death' at Auschwitz

Mengele served as a German doctor at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, where approximately 1.1 million people were killed, around 1 million of them Jews. He became notorious for conducting brutal medical experiments on inmates, including children, under the pretence of scientific research.

Decades in hiding

After the war ended, Mengele obtained a Red Cross travel document under a false identity that enabled him to leave Europe. Like many former Nazi officials, he spent years concealed in Latin America while being pursued internationally for his crimes. He drowned in 1979 while swimming off the coast of Brazil.

Historians have long pressed for access to Swiss intelligence files to establish whether Mengele spent time in Switzerland while being hunted as a war criminal, without Swiss authorities apprehending him. The newly released documents may help resolve whether Switzerland, which maintained neutrality during the war, inadvertently or otherwise provided sanctuary to one of the Holocaust's most infamous perpetrators.

Source: South China Morning Post