Home Books Mengele: Unmasking the "Angel of Death"

Mengele: Unmasking the "Angel of Death"

Mengele: Unmasking the "Angel of Death"

by David G. Marwell

W. W. Norton & Company ·2020 ·432 pages
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Top of the Pile

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About This Book

A gripping account of the infamous Nazi doctor, from a former Justice Department official tasked with uncovering his fate. One of the most notorious war criminals of all time, Dr. Josef Mengele has come to symbolize both the evil of the Nazi regime and the failure of justice in the postwar world. Drawing on new scholarship and sources, historian David G. Marwell examines Mengele's life and career, chronicling his university studies, which led to two PhDs and a promising career as a scientist; his wartime service, in combat and at Auschwitz, where his "selections" determined the fate of countless innocents and his "scientific" pursuits resulted in the traumatization and death of thousands more; and his postwar refuge in Germany and South America. Mengele describes the international search in 1985, which ended in a cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the dogged forensic investigation that produced overwhelming evidence that Mengele had died―but failed to convince those who, arguably, most wanted him dead. This is a story of science without limits, escape without freedom, and resolution without justice.


Reviews

"Much of the volume is taken up with Mengele's escape to, and life in, various South American countries and the bungled attempts to locate and capture him ..."

Steven Aschheim· The New York Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Marwell's life has much new to tell us, both about Mengele himself and, more significant, about the social and scientific milieu that allowed him to flourish."

Adam Gopnik· The New Yorker Read review ↗ Near the Top

"A chilling biography ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"The author's legalistic prose occasionally obscures the drama of his subject's crimes and exile, but Israeli attempts to flush Mengele out of hiding in the 1960s and 1970s are grippingly related ..."

Booklist Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Marwell was working at the US Department of Justice when he was assigned to join an international search for Mengele, then believed still to be alive."

Christopher Priest· The Spectator (UK) Read review ↗ Near the Top

"David Marwell has been thinking about Mengele for a long time ..."

David Margolick· The Wall Street Journal Read review ↗ Near the Top

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