(EST PUB DATE) PARAGUAY-LATIN AMERICA: THE CASE OF DR. MENGELE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00871101
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: October 23, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2023
• Case Number: F-2020-00953
• Publication Date: February 15, 1985

Approved for Release: 2023/03/01 C00871101
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Paraguay-Latin America:
The Case of Dr. Mengele (u)
The search for German war criminal Josef Mengele
has centered on South America, long a haven for Nazi
fugitives. Paraguay has been a special target for
investigators. Mengele reportedly lived there during
the early 1960s, and some Nazi hunters believe he
still resides in Paraguay under official protection.
Mengele, a physician, is accused of selecting tens of
thousands of inmates at the Auschwitz concentration
camp for medical experiments or extermination in gas
chambers. Most of the information we have on his
postwar activities is unsubstantiated�the last
confirmed sighting was in the late 1960s, according to
press reports�and serves more to document
Mengele's past movements than to provide indications
of whether he is still alive or his current whereabouts.
The Paraguayan Government has been only mildly
responsive to inquiries about Mengele, and President
Stroessner has barred independent investigations,
labeling them as interference in internal affairs. In
our view, if Mengele�who would now be 73 years
old�is alive and residing in Paraguay, the regime's
attitude, combined with the lack of recent information
on his whereabouts, gives him a reasonable chance of
continuing to evade capture.
Past Residence in Paraguay
Last December two sources provided US Embassy
personnel with what appear to be plausible, although
unconfirmed, accounts of Mengele's movements until
the early 1970s. The first source, a lawyer from New
York, was visiting Paraguay to gather information for
a book on Mengele. He met several times there with
Alejandro von Eckstein, a Russian emigre who has
lived in the country for 50 years and claims a long
relationship with the Nazi fugitive. Von Eckstein told
the lawyer that Mengele started visiting Paraguay in
the mid-1950s while residing in Buenos Aires, became
a Paraguayan citizen in 1959, and lived in and around
Asuncion until 1965. Mengele then moved to Brazil,
according to von Eckstein, and visited Paraguay
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Reward poster placed by Nazi hunters in a
Paraguayan newspaper last November. The
picture of Mengele was obtained in 1976.
but its date or origin is uncertain. The
reward for information is about E.25.000 in
Paraguayan currency. (c Nr)
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several times in the late 1960s. Von Eckstein said
Mengele lived in Brazil until several years ago. The
Russian claimed that he knew the exact location in
Brazil and that he could easily find out if Mengele
were still alive,
EXEMPTIONS Section 3(b)
(2)(A) Privacy
(2)(B) Methods/Sources
(2)(G) Foreign Relations
NA a WAR CRIMES DISCLOSURE ACT
2000
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Conrado Pappalardo, a high-level official in the
Paraguayan Government, corroborated and added to
this information in a later meeting with US Embassy
personnel. According to Pappalardo, Mengele was a
partner in a large hardware store in Asuncion
between 1959 and 1965, and used his own name
during that period. The store had ties to a farm
implement factory owned by the Mengele family in
Germany, and Mengele allegedly visited Germany
several times. Pappalardo said Mengele left Paraguay
for Brazil in 1965 after Nazi hunters discovered his
whereabouts. Eventually, according to Pappalardo,
the Nazi fugitive went on to Portugal but continued
corresponding with friends in South America until
around 1980. Pappalardo said that Mengele's friends
believe the absence of correspondence since then
indicated that Mengele had died.
How Mengele Evaded Capture
Halfhearted Pursuit. The lawyer from New York told
US Embassy personnel he had obtained evidence that
the Israelis had broken off their efforts to capture
Mengele two decades earlier. He said a high-level
Israeli intelligence officer assigned to tracking Nazis
had told him that in the early 1960s Israeli operatives
trailed Mengele to a farm near Encarnacion in
southern Paraguay. The farm was heavily fortified
and difficult to storm. The Israelis, according to the
intelligence official, were also inhibited from taking
action by the international uproar over their 1960
kidnaping of Nazi fugitive Adolph Eichmann in
Buenos Aires. The Israeli said that, by the mid-1960s,
Tel Aviv had more pressing concerns elsewhere and
the search for Mengele was shelved.
The West Germans also balked at about the same
time, according to von Eckstein. He claimed that the
West German Ambassador in Asuncion had queried
him about Mengele's whereabouts, but then asked von
Eckstein to withhold the information. Von Eckstein
believed that the Ambassador did not want to be put
in a position in which he would have had to press
Paraguay to extradite the fugitive to West Germany.
Paraguayan Protection. Even more important, in our
view, was the official protection Mengele evidently
enjoyed in Paraguay. Stroessner, who has been in
power since 1954, is of German background, and he
sympathized with the Axis powers during World War
II. Moreover, according to an unconfirmed report
from a retired US military officer who lived in
Paraguay in the 1960s and early 1970s, Mengele
served on occasion as Stroessner's personal physician.
Stroessner agreed only under strong international
pressure to revoke Mengele's Paraguayan citizenship
in 1979.
Mengele reportedly also received considerable help
from the network of prosperous people of German
origin living in Paraguay. For example, his partner in
the Asuncion hardware store, according to
Pappalardo, was of German descent. The fortified
ranch at which Mengele was staying when the Israelis
located him belonged to a family of German
background.
Recent Developments
Although the last confirmed sighting of Mengele was
nearly two decades ago in Paraguay, there have been
numerous unsubstantiated reports in recent years. In
January 1982, longtime Nazi hunter Simon
Wiesenthal claimed that Mengele was alive, although
afflicted with cancer, and was moving between
Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia. Another Nazi
hunter believes Mengele has abandoned Paraguay
and is traveling between Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay.
Others claim to have spotted him at various times in
Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and the United States.
Last August, Mengele was allegedly seen by
informants in the Paraguayan cities of Filadelphia,
Puerto Stroessner, and Pedro Juan Caballero. In mid-
February, a Paraguayan exile in Buenos Aires
claimed Mengele was living on a military base in
Laureles, a town to the east of Desmochados in
southwestern Paraguay, where Stroessner has his
summer home.
Stroessner has been only mildly cooperative in
investigating such rumors. Last November, in
response to a request from a delegation led by a
former member of the US Congress, the President
'The German-origin community includes people whose families
began emigrating to Paraguay in the late 19th century and others
who arrived after World War II. According to open sources, some
200,000 Paraguayans out of a total population of 3.6 million are of
German descent.
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ordered a nationwide manhunt for Mengele and
offered to allow outsiders to assist Paraguayan police
investigators. Press reports indicate, however, that the
Paraguayan inquiry was halfhearted�Asuncion
announced within days that it had found nothing�
and Stroessner soon reneged on his offer to allow non-
Paraguayans to assist his investigators. We believe his
initiativetas little more than a gambit aimed at
easing international pressure.
Prospects for Capture
If Mengele is still alive, we believe his personal
wealth, his connections among Germans in Paraguay
and elsewhere in South America, the porosity of
borders in the region, and the lack of recent confirmed
sightings will hinder efforts to locate and capture him.
Moreover, we see little indication that Stroessner
currently intends to be cooperative. If Mengele is now
residing in Paraguay, the President would probably
want to avoid the embarrassment of having him found
there. Paraguayan resentment of US human rights
policies will also impede efforts to persuade Asuncion
to help track Mengele down. We expect that only a
combination of intense international pressure and
economic or political incentives would prompt
Stroessner to cooperate.
This article is CePtimiefffier.----
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