Documents Reveal: Mengele Lived Under His Name In Argentina But Wasn’t Arrested

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Argentinian documents revealed on Sunday evening expose an infuriating and almost unimaginable picture: Dr. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” of Auschwitz and one of the most notorious Nazi criminals, lived for years in Argentina, even though the authorities knew exactly who he was, where he came from, and the horrific, inhuman experiments he performed on Jews during the Holocaust.

Mengele was one of the senior physicians at the Auschwitz extermination camp and became a symbol of Nazi cruelty, especially due to the medical experiments he conducted on Jews in the camps, particularly on twins, people with disabilities, and those with physical deformities. Holocaust survivors remember him especially for being responsible for the infamous “selections”: he decided who would be sent to forced labor and who would be sent to death moments after stepping off the trains, pointing to the right or left. The nickname “Angel of Death” was given to him because of the cruel experiments he conducted without any real medical justification, injecting toxic substances, performing surgeries without anesthesia, attempting to change eye colors, and killing victims deliberately in order to perform autopsies.

As early as 1956, Mengele dared to request documents under his real name
In the massive archive disclosed at the order of Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, investigators found photographs, tracking records, immigration documents, intelligence memos, and correspondence spanning hundreds of pages. They document how Mengele entered the country in 1949 with an Italian passport under the name “Helmut Gregor,” received official immigrant status in 1950, and by 1956 had the audacity to request from the German embassy in Argentina an authenticated copy of his original birth certificate. Not only that: he also asked to update his identification papers to his real name, showing how safe he felt.

The documents include chilling accounts of his atrocities in Auschwitz. One excerpt found in the archive is an old interview with survivor José Formanski, who himself was a twin. “I saw him countless times in Auschwitz,” he said. “He gathered twins of all ages and performed experiments that always ended in death… What I saw among children, women, and the elderly will never be forgotten.” The fact that this testimony was found in Argentinian records indicates that the authorities were fully aware of the accusations against Mengele.

The authorities knew exactly where the German butcher lived but did nothing
According to the documents, by the mid-1950s Argentina knew precisely where Mengele lived — in the town of Carapachay, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires — and even monitored his business activities. Reports show that during this period he married his brother’s widow and established a medical laboratory in which he was listed as a partner. There is even mention of a visit by his father to Argentina, likely to provide financial support for the business.

In 1959, West Germany issued an arrest warrant and requested his extradition, but an Argentinian judge rejected the request, claiming that it was based on “political persecution.” The documents describe a fragmented and poorly coordinated bureaucracy: intelligence agencies possessed information they failed to share, instructions arrived late, and operations were launched only after Mengele had already realized he was being pursued. At a certain point, it appears the authorities were relying mainly on foreign press reports.

With growing international pressure, Mengele fled Argentina and moved to Paraguay, where he obtained citizenship. He later moved to Brazil and disappeared among farming communities of German descent. When Argentinian authorities finally raided his laboratory in Buenos Aires — they arrived far too late.

The documents describe how, after his escape, authorities tried belatedly to track him using foreign newspaper clippings and international reports. Only in 1985 were the details of his death conclusively confirmed: Mengele had drowned after suffering a stroke while swimming in Brazil, and was buried under a false name.