Josef Rudolf Mengele was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician during World War II. Nicknamed the "Angel of Death", he performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) concentration camp, where he was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be murdered in the gas chambers, and was one of the doctors who administered the gas.
Mengele at Solahütte in 1944
"Selection" of Hungarian Jews on the ramp at Birkenau, May/June 1944
(from l. to r.) Richard Baer, Josef Mengele, and Rudolf Höss in Auschwitz, 1944 (Höcker Album)
Jewish children kept alive in Auschwitz for use in Mengele's medical experiments, including twins Miriam Mozes and Eva Mozes (wearing knitted caps). The Red Army liberated these children in January 1945.
Nazi human experimentation
Nazi human experimentation was a series of medical experiments on prisoners by Nazi Germany in its concentration camps mainly between 1942 and 1945. There were 15,754 documented victims, of various nationalities and age groups, although the true number is believed to be more extensive. Many survived, with a quarter of documented victims being killed. Survivors generally experienced severe permanent injuries.
"A Jewish prisoner in a special chamber responds to changing air pressure during high-altitude experiments. For the benefit of the Luftwaffe, conditions simulating those found at 15,000 meters [49,000 ft] in altitude were created in an effort to determine if German pilots might survive at that height."
A cold water immersion experiment at Dachau concentration camp presided over by Ernst Holzlöhner (left) and Sigmund Rascher (right). The subject is wearing an experimental Luftwaffe garment.
A victim loses consciousness during a depressurization experiment at Dachau by Luftwaffe doctor Sigmund Rascher, 1942.
Child victims of Nazi experimentation show incisions where axillary lymph nodes had been surgically removed after they were deliberately infected with tuberculosis at Neuengamme concentration camp. They were later murdered.
