DOUBTS ON MENGELE'S TIME IN PARAGUAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120044-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: February 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/06/04: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120044-2
NEW YORK TIMES
27 February, 1985
Doubts on Meng'ele's Time in Paraguay
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,' and for
four years and two months''
changes in ambassadors and charges
d'affaires,.I held that position; often
for months at a time as.acting chief of
the embassy's,political section.
Throughout thoseyears, there were,
constant rumors - that Martin Bo- were,
-mane, Hitler's vice fiihrer, was .in'
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-
room by Borman. Strangers came to
me with tales of Bormann. - -
The Minister of the Interior, Edgar
Insfran, who controlled security
forces, volunteered to me in confi-
dence that be 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 did?and
I asked him several times about it He
finally replied he had been mistaken.
Despite the dictatorship, Paraguay,
whose capital then had only 130,000-1n-
habitants, did not keep secrets.- l-
most anybody who had indoor plumb-
ing ]mew everybody else who did." .
It is conceivable that Mengele ivas
tbere.and people thought it was Bor-
mann, but.I 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 10 the
U.S. A. DANE .BowEatJR
Lock Haven, Pa., Feb'. 19, 1985
The writer is professor of history and
economics at Lock Haven University.
Approved For Release 2011/06/04: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120044-2