Declassified Files Show How Nazi ‘Angel Of Death’ Josef Mengele Ym”s Eluded Justice In Argentina

Documents released by President Javier Milei reveal how “Doctor” Josef Mengele ym”s, the murderous “Angel of Death,” managed to live freely in Argentina after the war, the New York Post reported Sunday.

Mengele, infamous for his role as an Auschwitz commander, carried out monstrous medical experiments on prisoners, especially twins, under the false banner of “scientific inquiry.” Eyewitness accounts, some included in the newly released Argentine files, describe his chilling brutality and sadism, including torturing twins in front of one another after sending their parents to the gas chambers R”l.

A full binder in the archive is solely dedicated to tracking the movements of the Auschwitz doctor and SS officer.

The records demonstrate that by the mid- to late 1950s, Argentina had already confirmed Mengele’s identity and presence in the country. Officials knew he entered in 1949 with an Italian passport under the alias Helmut Gregor, later using it to obtain an immigrant ID in 1950.

Argentina’s collection exposes the network that protected him. The heavily fragmented archive, which spans Spanish, German, Portuguese, and English, reveals how authorities documented, mishandled, and often failed to act on what they knew about one of the world’s most notorious war criminals.

The trove includes photographs, intelligence files, immigration documents, surveillance notes, and correspondence, showing years of attempts to map the support system that assisted him across Argentina, Paraguay, and eventually Brazil. German documents point to foreign intelligence involvement; Portuguese and English elements hint at cooperation with Brazilian, US, or British agencies.

Among the material is an undated newspaper clipping about José Furmanski, an Argentine citizen born in Poland and a victim of Mengele. The files show local intelligence was well aware of the accusations against him.

“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,” Furmanski recalls in the interview.

Furmanski, himself a twin, described the horrors inflicted on him and his sibling.

“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,” he said.

The archive also contains dozens of images without captions and hundreds of pages of internal notes, showing a structured, though often ineffective, effort to assemble a complete dossier. It includes foreign passports issued under aliases, photos of suspected collaborators, handwritten operational plans, border-crossing logs, and briefings prepared for senior officials.

The files confirm that Argentina’s postwar approach was muddled; a mix of cooperation with Western allies and bureaucratic dysfunction. Authorities showed limited urgency or comprehension of the severity of Nazis’ crimes, and senior officials appeared reluctant to expose how rooted Nazi fugitives had become in Argentine society.

In 1956, while expanding a business venture, he secured a certified copy of his birth certificate from the West German Embassy in Buenos Aires and petitioned to have his ID officially changed to his real name; a remarkable sign of how secure he felt.

By then, Argentine agencies not only knew his true identity and address, but were also aware that he had married his brother’s widow, was raising their son, and had significant business interests in the country. Some reports indicate his father may have visited Argentina to support him financially, including investments in a Buenos Aires medical-laboratory enterprise.

His conspicuous lifestyle prompted West Germany to issue an arrest warrant and request extradition in 1959. A local judge blocked the request, claiming it amounted to “political persecution,” and declined to take action.

Despite extensive evidence, information remained scattered among agencies that rarely communicated. Intelligence often failed to reach the presidency, and actions were taken too late, sometimes only after press leaks alerted him, resulting in repeated dead ends. Arrest orders, searches, and surveillance operations were frequently approved after they were no longer useful.

After the 1959 extradition request and growing pressure on Argentina, he fled to Paraguay while his wife and stepson relocated to Switzerland.

A memo dated July 12, 1960 — long after he had already slipped into Paraguay — shows investigators still trying to trace his business dealings and movements. It detailed his partnership in the medical-laboratory firm FADRO-FARM and his use of the alias Dr. Gregor.

Argentine intelligence continued monitoring him largely through news reports and conversations with foreign agencies. He gained Paraguayan citizenship and was shielded by dictator Alfredo Stroessner, whose family originated from the same Bavarian town.

The files show he slipped into Brazil clandestinely in 1960 via the tri-border region near Paraná state. Nazi-sympathizing German Brazilian farmers sheltered him in various rural locations.

The Argentine documents, increasingly dependent on media clippings, indicate that he used the alias Peter Hochbichler in Brazil, though he sometimes reverted to a Portuguese version of his real name, José Mengele. During the late 1960s and 1970s, he stayed on properties owned by the German Bossert and Stammer families in São Paulo state.

He died in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming off the coast of Bertioga. Buried under the false name Wolfgang Gerhardt, he was later exhumed, and his identity was confirmed by Brazilian authorities in 1985. DNA analysis in 1992 further verified the findings.