THIS IS THE YEAR WE MUST GET MENGELE

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6
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RIPPUB
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K
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2
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 6, 2010
Sequence Number: 
16
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Publication Date: 
April 1, 1985
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OPEN SOURCE
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6 VVIM r 1rr!A D *1 F ._ l Topic HUNTING NAZIS Rabbi Marvin Hier, 46, is dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which has called for an intensified search for Nazi war criminal Jo- sef Mengele. Hier, who founded Yeshiva Univer- sity of Los Angeles and co-wrote and co-pro- duced the Academy Award-winning docu- mentary Genocide, was interviewed by USA TO- DAY's Gregory Katz USA TODAY 1 ApH11; 1985 This isthe year we must get Mengele USA TODAY: Do you believe the United States aovern- meat i HIER: We do not know all there is to know about the U.S. Sud&D- connection that's for sure. Proof of this is the fact ly the CIA has documents. There La many skeletons in tho conducting intelligence per World War IT, What we know run2s. So it certainly wouldn't be far fetched to amume that they had some use for Mengele. USA TODAY: What are some of the leads you're following to find Mengele? HIER: One trail that unfortunately is cold now because the person died is the Otto Skorzeny trail. Skorzeny was Hitler's commando and, after the war, I believe he was work- ing for the United States. He was jailed after the war and his escape is suspicious - people dressed in U.S. uni- , forms got him out. Two years later, he came back to Germany, the place he es- caped from. It's just not logi- cal.. USA TODAY; And y believe he;was connected to Mengele? HIER: Skorzeny had tremendous clout. After he came back to Germany in 1948, he stayed for nine months in Bavaria. Jo- seph Mengele lived in Bavaria at that time, before he is be- lieved to have left for South America, between 1949 to 1951. Spain, and Mengele to Argentina. don't really know. Bu- to t Skorrzeny had set up Spain as his headquarters. USA TODAY: Why would the USA have anything to do with Skorzeny? HIER: Skorzeny had an assignment to help fight commu- nism. He was useful to the United States in that respect. The question is whether there was a quid pro quo: "AS long as You do our work, we'll let you carry on your little Nazi work on the side." Some say Skorzeny ran the escape routes that got Men- gele and Adolf Eichmann out. If the USA knew all of his activi- ties, because they were shadowing him around hthe e was getting , hey would even know the names of the people that out, and that implicates them very deeply. That has never been proven, but it is a trail that is really worth a thorough investigation because it might lead to the conclusion that the United States knew everything Skorzeny was doing - and didn't act. USA TODAY: Is it possible then, that U.S. officials at times knew where Mengele was? HIER: Yes, they could have pinpointed where Mengele was in a second, but it wasn't in their interest to do so. They looked the other way, and that is`an indictment That's a very strong indictment USA TODAY: What are some active leads that may shed light on Mengele's whereabouts now? HIER: There is a man named Ricardo Rief Henstahl prhfessor jail in Germany on drug trafficking charges. from Paraguay, an expert in bees. There are two people who claim that Riefenstahl told them on two occasions that Men- ' gele had stayed with him in 1979, 1980, 1981. Riefenstahl de- nies it, but if it could be substantiated that President is lying, it would also show that Paraguayan ner lied when he said that Mengele hasn't been seen there. You can't live that openly in Paraguay, file official pa- pers, and not be known to the secret police. USA TODAY: What else have you got? HIER: There are tips that come in every day that have to be analyzed, and a lot of them are a waste of time. But some turn up something The most important thing in the Mengele case, in the last 35 years is that he has always been the property of Nazi hunters. Today he's the property of the world, of the U.S. government, because the U.S. government has entered the case. I think there is a tremendous feeling out there that this is the year we've got to get Mengele, and that has been brought about by the USA's involvement in the case. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6 USA TODAY: How did the U.S. government get in- volved? IiiER This was bront}t about by the Gorby docu me& which shows that Mengele may have,been held in aUS. Army prison camp but let go. Without the Gorby document, the United States wouldn't have had a reason to get in. Now, the United States has assigned teams and teams of people to look at the documents. I hope they do the right thing USA TODAY: How many governments are active- ly looking for him? HIER: The truth is, it's one thing for attorneys to look for him, and it's another thing for counterintelligence cold. Nobody was agents. filed was extradition requests, here. The West Germans the there. posted rewards, but they never answered one question: How many counterintelligence agents in the field do you have looking for Mengele 24 hours a day, seven days a week? None. Absolutely none. USA TODAY: How about Israel's efforts? HIER: The same with Israel. They don't want to stick their neck out alone. Everybody is looking for someone else to do it. I happen to know off the record - no, you can be on the record, but I just won't tell you my source - that the Israelis discussed with Washington a short while ago the establishment of a world arrest order... USA TODAY: What's the value of a world arrest order?_ . _. , _ HIER: It seems to me that a world arrest order may be an instrument of legality so that the whole world should know it's legal to grab Mengele, whether you ask the local government or not. USA TODAY: In other words, a world arrest order would ve you or mete ct on to take someone like en e e Into cult HIER: Yes. Or the Massed Israel's Secret. Service: The fact that the wou as o our overn nt in alit be an in ca on that there is new talk of forming sus a team. e s ing Kepi; es we belie a he is in the idea to netrate the cover. It's like 11 rig a piece o w - w enever apiece of wood is lifted, he's got to run. If the Riefenstahl thing is true, Mengele would be in trouble because he would have to leave all of these people he knew. When he leaves them and they have no more use for him, and vice versa, they might talk. USA TODAY: Let's say Mengele is somewhere In Paraguay, living on a large hacienda surrounded by a barbed wire fence with 20 private guards with sub- machine guns patrolling the perimeter. What can anyone do? HIER: We might begin a campaign of a different kind. There's a reward worth millions. I don't know if the people of Paraguay fully know that. The question 'ls- filtering that information all the way down. Then we prefer to send somebody down - an undercover One g son, as opposed to someone that goes openly. is to get one of his military people who knows the infor- mation to squeal for the reward and to give credible evidence so that a commando operation can take place. USA TODAY: Does anyone really know where Mengele actually is? HIER: We do not know where Mengele is, except for the fact that the latest information is that he returned to Paraguay in December, 1984, after a short visit to Bolivia. That's the latest information we have. We do not know where he is now. If we did, we would make' sure that a team would try to take him out USA TODAY: What more can the USA do? ER: I think President Reagan should make apb- 0--M-Fn-ra- Nat would send-n sit- nal to the entire world and scare the h I of - is order- t h e uay wou or the president to say tha lne the CIA w mtake t .e rapture of Men?o1P a trip priority. Instead the case re mains the property of the Justice Department. There is no indication that coun- terintelli2ence is involved. So It is in the hens of the Justice Department Office .of Special Invests do ere a veryg~orr~an la on ev have an adml ra a -record to the USA but thpy're not an ntelliQence agency overseas. USA TODAY: What can you and the center do? HIER: Now our yob is to control the Information so that every time the a is an appearance that the _ en- f I n ox- ele case is dying we can resurrect it with new we have, because if you give it all out at one time. the president to stay on the case. That's our objective. Next hot that the president has to tell the CIA to t involved. That's what we wan -.000mo The "Angel of Death' Born to a wealthy Bavarian family 74 years ago, Nazi "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele joined Hitler's elite S.S. guard in 1939 and was made chief doctor at the Auschwitz death camp in 1943. While at Auschwitz, Megele reportedly sent more than 400,000 Jews to their deaths. He also is ac- cused of conducting sadistic medical experiments that killed and maimed countless prisoners. After Hitler fell, Mengele returned to Bavaria, then fled to Argentina in 1949, using the alias Helmut Gre- gor. He stayed there until Juan Peron who wel- comed Nazis - was overthrown in 1955. Mengele then went to Paraguay, where he ob- tained citizenship in 1959. He lived openly there for some years before going back underground. Au- thorities in West Germany, Israel, and the USA are looking for him, but hard information is scarce. Recently declassified CIA documents s! nnast that Men ele is somewhere in South America, may have had a face lift, and may involved in international drua trafficking. Private groups have offered $2.3 million in reward money, and Sen. Edward Kennedy wants the U.S. government to add $1 million to the bounty. Source: USA TODAY research Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6