DOUBTS ON MENGELE'S TIME IN PARAGUAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200039-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 39
• Publication Date: February 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200039-1
NEW YORK TIMES
27 February, 1985
Doubts on Mengele's Time in Paraguay-
Paraguay, but never a mention of
Mengele. The half-Russian step-
daughter of a West German second
secretary assured me that the very
bedroom she occupied in her step-
father's house had been used as a bed-
To the Editor:
On ABC-TV's "This Week With
David Brinkley" on Feb. 17, Senator
Alfonse M. D'Amato and others
stated they had information that the
Nazi torturer Dr. Josef Mengele en-
tered Paraguay in 1959, that he ac-
quired citizenship soon afterward and
moved freely about. It was further as-
serted that Paraguayans are still
afraid to talk about Mengele because
of the country's dictatorship.
On Dec. 1, 1959, I took up duties at
the United States Embassy in Para-
-' guay as a political officer, ~'A rd for
four years and two months, through
changes in ambassadors and charg6.s
d'affaires, I held that position, often
for months at a time as acting chief of
the embassy's political section.
Throughout those years, there were
constant rumors that Martin Bor-
man, Hitler's vice fiihrer, was in
room by Bormann. Strangers came to
me with tales of Bormann.
The Minister of the Interior, Edgar
Insfrdn, who controlled security
forces, volunteered to me in confi-
dence that he believed Bormann left
Europe at the end of World War II on a
Vatican passport and was - then, in
Paraguay. He promised to give me
further information. He never didjnd
I asked him several times about it He
finally replied he had been mistaken.
Despite the dictatorship, Paraguay,
whose capital then had only 130,000 in-
habitants, did not keep secrets.' Al-
~most anybody who had indoor plumb.
ing knew everybody else who did.-
It is conceivable that Mengele was
there and people thought it was Bor-
mann, buts strongly doubt either was
there between Dec. 1, 1959 and Jan. 25,
1964, when I had the responsibility of
knowing and reporting to Washington
all political matters of interest lo the
U.S. A. DANE Bowser JR.
Lock Haven, Pa., Feb. 19, 1985
The writer is professor of history and
economics at Lock Haven University.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200039-1