Secret files related to the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, known as the ‘Angel of Death,’ are poised to be unveiled. Mengele, a physician who served in the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany, conducted cruel experiments at Auschwitz in Poland, primarily targeting Jewish and Romani individuals. The death toll at the camp during the Nazi occupation of Poland reached an estimated 1.1 million, with the majority being Jewish victims.
Mengele’s experiments included testing on identical twins and preserving the heads and organs of numerous afflicted children, which were then sent for further study at SS medical facilities. After World War II, Mengele evaded capture by escaping to Argentina under a false identity.
Following Mengele’s death in 1976, historians requested access to his records in Switzerland. Despite an international arrest warrant in place, there were suspicions that Mengele had visited Switzerland, where his wife Martha Maria rented a flat and sought permanent residency.
Swiss historian Regula Bochsler disclosed to the BBC that Mengele had plans to visit Europe in 1959, raising questions about his wife’s activities in Zurich. Police files revealed that the flat was under surveillance in 1961, with indications of her association with an unknown man.
An attempted arrest of Mengele in 1961 would have involved Swiss federal police. Bochsler sought access to Swiss Federal Archive files but was denied, with the documents sealed until 2071 for national security reasons and to protect Mengele’s relatives. Others, including historian Gerard Wettstein in 2025, faced similar refusals, prompting speculation about hidden information.
Wettstein’s challenge to the sealed files led to a change in stance by the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, which raised funds to contest the decision in court. The extent of information to be unveiled upon opening the files remains uncertain. The intelligence service stated that transparency would be gradual, with the appellant granted access under specified conditions yet to be outlined.
