Josef Mengele. Switzerland Opens Secret Files on Auschwitz's 'Angel of Death'
Historians have repeatedly demanded access to these files, but until now, Swiss authorities have refused.
Nazi SS doctor Josef Mengele sent about 400,000 people to their deaths, most of whom were Jews
The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service has announced that it will finally open long-classified documents concerning the infamous Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, writes BBC.
Mengele fled Europe after World War II, but for years there were rumors that he had spent some time in Switzerland, despite an international arrest warrant being issued for him. Historians have repeatedly demanded access to these files, but until now, Swiss authorities have refused.
Mengele was a doctor who served in the German Waffen-SS units. He was stationed at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where he selected people to be sent to the gas chambers. About 1.1 million people, one million of whom were Jews, died at Auschwitz.
Known as the "Angel of Death," he also selected prisoners, mainly children and twins, for sadistic medical experiments, after which he also sent them to their deaths.
After the war, Mengele, like many high-ranking Nazis, quickly changed both his uniform and his name. With a false identity, he obtained a Red Cross passport at the Swiss consulate in Genoa, northern Italy, and fled to South America.
The Red Cross issued these documents to thousands of people across Europe who were displaced or rendered stateless by the war, but Nazis trying to evade prosecution were also able to obtain them. For this, the Red Cross later apologized.
The Geneva branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross issued passports under false names to Nazi war criminals
But how was Mengele connected to Switzerland?
Although he fled Europe in 1949, in 1956 Mengele, accompanied by his son Rolf, spent a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps.
This information has been known since the 1980s. Officially, he lived the rest of his life in South America after this.
However, Swiss historian Regula Bochsler always questioned whether Mengele returned again — and, importantly, after an international arrest warrant was issued for him in 1959.
While researching Switzerland's possible role as a transit country for fleeing Nazis, Bochsler discovered that in June 1961, Austrian intelligence warned Switzerland: Mengele was traveling under a false name and might be in Swiss territory.
Meanwhile, Mengele's wife rented an apartment in Zurich and applied for permanent residency.
"There seems to be evidence that Mengele planned a trip to Europe in 1959," the historian told BBC. "Why did Mrs. Mengele rent an apartment in Zurich?"
The apartment was in a modest suburb, although the Mengele family could afford much more luxurious accommodation. But it was located close to an international airport.
Bochsler managed to examine Zurich police files, which confirm that the apartment was under surveillance in 1961. The police even recorded Mrs. Mengele driving a "Volkswagen" accompanied by an unknown man. But was it her husband?
A war criminal would have attracted the Swiss federal police.
In 2019, Bochsler approached the Swiss Federal Archives to also view their files. She was denied. The files were classified until 2071 for reasons of national security and to protect the family.
Bochsler was not the first, nor the last, to be denied. In 2025, her colleague, historian Gerard Wettstein, tried again. He was also denied.
"It seemed ridiculous," he told the BBC. "As long as they are classified until 2071, it fuels conspiracy theories, everyone says: 'They obviously have something to hide'."
Mengele (center) in 1944 with Auschwitz commandant Richard Baer (left) and former commandant Rudolf Höss
Wettstein appealed this decision and sued the Swiss authorities. It was not cheap, and he turned to crowdfunding to raise money for the lawsuit.
"We raised 18,000 Swiss francs (23,000 US dollars) in just a few days."
And that's when the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service finally changed its mind. In a statement this month, it noted: "The appellant will be granted access to the documents, subject to conditions and requirements yet to be determined."
Not everyone is convinced that the files will reveal much about Mengele himself.
Sascha Zala, president of the Swiss Historical Society, is "absolutely certain there is nothing there about Mengele," but believes there might be references to a foreign intelligence service or foreign informants.
By the late 1950s, Israel's Mossad was actively tracking fugitive Nazi war criminals, and Zala suspects they might have contacted the Swiss. This would give Swiss authorities a reason to keep the files classified, as sensitive information related to foreign intelligence services is often concealed.
But is a mere mention of Mossad, linked to their known hunt for Nazis in the 1970s, really that secret?
"This shows the foolishness of the declassification process without historical knowledge," Zala believes. "Thus, the administration fueled conspiracy theories."
Other historians, such as Jakob Tanner, say that the secrecy of the files tells more about Switzerland than they could ever tell about Mengele.
"It's a conflict between national security and historical transparency, and the former often prevails in Switzerland."
Tanner was a member of the Bergier Commission in the 1990s, which investigated neutral Switzerland's relationship with Nazi Germany, particularly the role of Swiss banks. He is well acquainted with Switzerland's sensitivity and shame regarding its role in World War II, when Jewish refugees were denied entry at the border, while Swiss banks held money belonging to Jewish families who later died in Nazi concentration camps.
"The fact that these cases are still closed is a problem for a democratic state," Tanner argues.
Nevertheless, he considers it plausible that Mengele was in Switzerland in 1961. Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was arrested by Mossad in Argentina in 1960. There is evidence that other Nazis who fled to South America believed they were also in danger there, and that Europe, where friends and relatives remained, might be safer.
Tanner notes that Walter Rauff, another wanted Nazi war criminal who fled to Chile, spent some time in Germany in 1960.
One historian from the Bergier Commission was briefly allowed to examine some of Mengele's documents in 1999. He concluded that it was impossible to prove or disprove his presence on Swiss territory. But these were only a few lines in a 24-volume report on the entire war. The files were sealed again, and the historian died seven years ago.
Meanwhile, a date for the release of the documents has not yet been set, and the Federal Intelligence Service's statement regarding "conditions and requirements" sounds ominous to Wettstein.
"I'm afraid we'll get documents that are more obscure than transparent," he says.
Bochsler also worries that the files will be heavily redacted. "I absolutely do not trust the authorities. I'm afraid it will be similar to the Epstein files. Why have these Mengele files been closed for so long?"
Mengele has been the subject of secrets, rumors, and conspiracies for decades. He was never arrested, let alone convicted for his horrific crimes.
When he died in Brazil in 1979, he was buried under a false name. But rumors continued to spread. In 1985, his body was exhumed, and finally in 1992, DNA analysis confirmed that the body belonged to him.
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