MENGELE: ELUSIVE FOR 40 YEARS

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00965R000403220008-6
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
March 8, 2012
Sequence Number: 
8
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
March 18, 1985
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00965R000403220008-6.pdf63.75 KB
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403220008-6 AMILL F Mengele: Elusive for 40 years Documents, rewards spur a new interest USA TODAY 18 March, 1985 By Gregory Katz USA TODAY For 40 years he has wan- dered worldwide, eluding inves- tigators, bounty hunters, adven- turers. Seen everywhere and nowhere, he's believed to be alive, but may have been dead for years. Josef Mengele - Nazi Angel of Death, Auschwitz death camp doctor, fiendish experi- menter accused of killing 400,000, people, most of them Jews - is the most notorious of the Hitler men at large. And now, suddenly, the hunt heats up. In recent weeks: ^ A Senate Judiciary sub- committee will hold hearings on Mengele Tuesday. The gov- ernment got interested in Men- gele after the Simon Wiesenthal Center uncovered once-secret CIA documents it says prove the U.S. Army knowingly freed Mengele from a prisoner camp after World War II. ^ Anonymous donors added $1 million to the more than $300,000 in reward money. ^ The West German govern- ment appealed to the USA and 12 other nations for help in cap- turing Mengele. ^ West Germany is investi- gating whether the German branch of Mengele's family is funneling money to him via a secret Swiss bank account ^ Canadian investigators be- gan checking reports Mengele - using the alias Joseph Menke - entered Canada in 1962. Why all this frenzy over an old man four decades removed from his crimes? - "This man is the ultimate ter- rorist of the Western World," said Washington lawyer Martin Mendelsohn. "We want him alive. It's important so the Anal chapter can finally be written." Nazi hunters believe Gen. Al. fredo Stroessner, ruler of Para- guay since 1954, protected Men- gele for many years. Paraguay was a logical hid- ing place: German is the second language, there's a large Ger- man colony, and it welcomed Nazis after the war. . Paraguay denies it knows Mengele's whereabouts. But a New York lawyer re- searching Mengele's life says a high-ranking Paraguayan colo- nel, Alejandro von Eckstein, re- members spending weekends lounging by a pool with Men- gele in Paraguay in 1960s. . The lawyer, Gerald Posner, says Mengele was seen in Brazil and Chile in the past 18 months. The pursuit of Mengele by the U.S. Justice Department, General Accounting Office and Army investigators is top secret And scores of adventurers - mostly bounty hunters and free- lance journalists - are hoping to pick up Mengele's trail in the remote plains and jungles of South America. How fresh is the trail? Hundreds of sightings have been reported, most bogus. "These people make a living selling Nazi information to gull- ible journalists," said John Lof- tus, a former Justice Depart- ment lawyer. "It's like a cottage industry." Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403220008-6