Secret File On Auschwitz 'Angel of Death' Set To Open. Who Is Josef Mengele?

Last Updated:May 17, 2026, 04:42 IST

Switzerlands FIS will open long sealed Josef Mengele files after a legal appeal, aiding research on his postwar movements, welcomed by the International Auschwitz Committee

Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) will allow access to long-sealed files on Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor known as the “Angel of Death", reversing decades of restrictions on the documents.

Mengele was one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals and carried out brutal medical experiments on prisoners, including children and twins, at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. After the war Mengele, like many high-ranking Nazis, quickly changed both his uniform, and his name. He escaped to South America and died in Brazil in 1979 without facing trial, reported BBC.

Swiss authorities had previously denied historians and researchers access to the files, citing source protection, foreign intelligence concerns and privacy rights linked to Mengele’s descendants. The FIS changed its position after a reassessment triggered by a legal appeal filed by historian Gérard Wettstein.

Wettstein has been investigating whether Mengele travelled through Switzerland in 1961 and whether Swiss authorities were aware of his presence in the country.

The files had been under restricted access since a 2001 Swiss government decision, although they were earlier reviewed by the Bergier Commission, which investigated Switzerland’s links with Nazi Germany and Holocaust-era assets.

The International Auschwitz Committee welcomed the decision, saying the release of the documents could help shed more light on Mengele’s movements after World War II.

Who Is Josef Mengele? All We Know About Him

Josef Mengele was a German SS officer and physician at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, where he became notorious for conducting brutal medical experiments on prisoners, especially twins, children and people with disabilities. Born in Bavaria in 1911, Mengele joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and later became part of the Waffen-SS. At Auschwitz, he was involved in selecting prisoners sent to gas chambers and carried out experiments, often resulting in death, mutilation or permanent injury. Survivors later referred to him as the “Angel of Death".

After the war, Mengele evaded capture despite being one of the world’s most wanted Nazi war criminals. He fled Europe in 1949 using false documents and lived in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

International efforts to track him intensified after the 1960 capture of Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents.

Mengele died in Brazil in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming. His remains were identified through forensic tests in 1985.

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