Swiss federal intelligence has published a 200-page dossier on Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi war criminal and physician infamously known as the "Angel of Death." During World War II, Mengele conducted horrific medical experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where approximately 1.1 million people, including about 1 million Jews, were killed.
The documents released by Swiss authorities include material that suggests Mengele may have returned to Switzerland or planned to enter the country under a false identity after initially fleeing Germany, according to the German news agency dpa. Historians have long sought access to these files to determine if Mengele spent time in Switzerland while being pursued internationally for his crimes.
Following the war, Mengele obtained a Red Cross travel document under a false name, enabling his escape from Europe. He spent years in hiding in Latin America before his death by drowning in Brazil in 1979.
Swiss authorities had initially maintained that the documents should remain sealed until 2071, citing security concerns and the need to protect the personal data of individuals named within the files. However, historian Gérard Wettstein successfully challenged these restrictions in the Federal Administrative Court, leading to the online publication. Some sections of the dossier have been redacted to protect sources and third-party personal data.
The dossier was compiled by a predecessor to Switzerland’s current federal intelligence services and was transferred to the Federal Archives in 2001.