In 1949 the notorious Nazi doctor fled to South America. Three decades later, Gerald Posner (left) set out to track him down. Here the former lawyer tells us about his mission to catch the ‘Angel of Death’
INTERVIEW BY MATT ELTON
Matt Elton Before we talk about the part you played in the hunt for Josef Mengele, can we briefly set out his role in the Holocaust?
Gerald Posner Mengele was a doctor at Auschwitz, where he did two things for which he’s become notorious. First, he conducted all kinds of human experiments, some on children and many on twins. And, second, he waited at the camp entrance for trains to arrive packed with people, mostly Jews, from all over Nazi-occupied Europe, and selected who lived and who died. He wasn’t the only Nazi doctor at Auschwitz, but he became the most notorious for his enthusiasm for his gruesome work – and for escaping after the war and remaining a fugitive for many decades.
Did his crimes mean he was regarded as particularly worthy of being brought to justice after the war ended?
There was a limit to how many Nazis could be brought to justice. Some 50,000 worked at the camps in different positions, from guards to doctors and overseers to commandants. About 2,500 were eventually tried; thousands more returned to normal lives after the war without paying any price for their actions.
It may be hard to accept, but not every Nazi at every concentration camp liked the work. Some were sadistic, and some were pathological, but for many it was not considered a great assignment. Auschwitz was in Poland, where summers were hot and winters freezing – bad for the prisoners, but also for those who worked at the camps. I don’t mean to suggest that anyone should feel sorry for the Nazis, but some of them didn’t like it. That’s not the case with Mengele. He relished it: he viewed Auschwitz as a step up in his career, as a way to make a name for himself.
What did Nazis do when it became clear that the war was coming to an end?
The regime started to collapse very quickly at the end of 1944, and hardline Nazi zealots had two main goals. The first was to cover up their crimes, so at camps including Auschwitz they destroyed the gas chambers and tried to destroy the crematoriums. Then they tried to escape west. They didn’t want to stay in Poland, because Soviet troops – who had a reputation for brutality – were coming, and seeking vengeance for the te
