Mengele’s Writings Going on Auction Block
The writings of Auschwitz’s “Angel of Death,” Dr. Josef Mengele, are for sale by auction.
Alexander Historic Auctions of Stamford, Conn., announced that it will sell off all of the war criminal’s writings in an auction on July 21.
The writings include Mengele’s autobiography describing his escape from Germany and life in South America, diaries, philosophical tracts, racial and political commentary, poetry, short stories and travelogues. The archive is composed of more than 3,300 pages of handwritten text, some illustrated, written while Mengele was in hiding in Paraguay and Brazil between 1960 and 1975.
Mengele joined Heinrich Himmler’s SS in 1938 and was transferred to Auschwitz in 1943. He was one of the doctors that selected which prisoners would live or die upon arrival in the camp. Later he became more famous for his torturous experiments on children and twins.
At war’s end Mengele fled to South America, where he resided living in wealth, then poverty, until his accidental death by drowning in Brazil in 1979.
“Scholarly institutions or historic collections should obtain these writings not as a ‘remembrance’ of a horrific period of world history, but more as a learning tool for future generations to recognize the psychopathic mentality that incited the Holocaust so that similar genocides are never repeated,” Bill Panagopoulos, president of the auction house, said in a statement.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
