PARAGUAY-LATIN AMERICA: THE CASE OF DR. MENGELE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M01152R000100100007-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 15, 1985
• Content Type: REPORT

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/~EtUG f\
~,a ~ ~~.
Zw ~~'~, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
~_ J ~ ~ Office of legislative Liaison
vvasnington, u. c,. [u~u~
Telephone: 35 ~ ~ lf~a rc h 1985
T0: Mr. Thomas K. Latimer
Permane t SelectCor~ittee on Intelligence
House o~ Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Tom:
Enclosed, for your information, is a
paper regarding Dr. Mengele.
Hope you find it useful.
OLL 85-0902
STAT
is son Division ~
Office of Legislative Liaison
FORM 1533 ~?E?~;s
3-79 EDITIONS.
Distribution:
Original - Addressee
1 - OLL Record
1 - OLL Chrono
1~ hrono
LD/OLL : k pap (18 P9arch 1985) _
STAT
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Paraguay-Latin America:
The Case of Dr. Mengele
The search for German war criminal Josef Mengele
has centered on South America, long a haven for Nazi
fugitives. Paraguay has been a special target !or
investigators. Mengelc reportedly lived there during
the early 1960s, and some Nazi hunters believe he
still resides in Paraguay under official protection.
Mengele, a physician, is accused of selecting tens of
thousands of inmates at the Auschwitz concentration
camp for medical experiments or extermination in gas
chambers. Most of the information we have on his
postwar activities is unsubstantiated-the last
confirmed sighting was in the late 1960s, according to
press reports-and serves more to document
Mengele's past movements than to provide indications
of whether he is still alive or his current whereabouts.
The Paraguayan Government has been only mildly
responsive to inquiries about Mengele, and President
Strcessner has barred independent investigations,
labeling them as interference in internal affairs. In
our view, if Mengele-who would now be 73 years
old-is alive and residing in Paraguay, the regime's
attitude, combined with the lack of recent information
on his whereabouts, gives him a reasonable chance of
continuing to evade capture.
Past Residence in Paraguay
Last December two sources provided US Embassy
personnel with what appear to be plausible, although
unconfirmed, accounts of Mengele's movements until
the early 1970s. The first source, a lawyer from New
York, was visiting Paraguay to gather information for
a book on Mengele. He met several times there with
a Russian emigre who has
tv in t e country or SO years and claims a long
relationship with the Nazi fugitive told
the lawyer that Mengele started visiting Paraguay in
the mid-1950s while residing in Buenos Aires, became
a Paraguayan citizen in 1959, and lived in and around
Asuncion until 1965. Mengele then moved to Brazil,
. according t and visited Paraguay
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Reward poster placed by Nazi hunters too tnrr,,,o Aoro o
Pma
guayan newspaper lost November. T/u
picture 4lMaegele wos obtaintd in 1976,
but its date a origin is uncertain. The
rtward jor i~ormation, it a _ttt_;25,000 in
Parogurtyan currency.
several times in the late I960s ;,25X1
Mengele lived in Brazil until several years ago. 1 ~~x~l
Russian claimed that he knew the exact location in
Brazil and that he could easily find out if Mengele
were still alive.
25X1
ALA LAR 85-005
1 S February 1985
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corroborated and added to
t ~s to ormation ink m with US Embassy
personnel. According to~ t ~ Mengele was a
partner in a large hardware store in Asuncion
between 1959 and 1965, and used his own name
during that period. The store had ties to a farm
implement factory owned by the Mengele family in
Germany, and Men ele allegedly visited Germany
several times aid Mengele left Paraguay
for Brazil in 1965 after Nazi hunters disc v
whereabouts. Eventually, according t
the Nazi fugitive went on to Portugal but continued
correspondin with friends in South America until
around 1980 said that Mengele's friends
believe the absence of correspondence since then
indicated that Mengele had died.
Hor+ Mengele Evaded Capture
Ha(/hearted Pursuit. The lawyer from New York told
US Embassy personnel he had obtained evidence that
the Israelis had broken off their efforts to capture
Mengele two decades earlier. He said ahigh-level
Israeli intelligence officer assigned to tracking Nazis
had told him that in the early 1960s Israeli operatives
trailed Mengele to a farm near Encarnacion in
southern Paraguay. The farm was heavily fortified
and difficult to storm. The Israelis, according to the
intelligence ofl5cial, were also inhibited from taking _ ..
action by the international uproar over their 1960
kidnaping of Nazi fugitive Adolph Eichmann in
Buenos Aires. The Israeli said that, by the mid-1960s,
Tel Aviv had more pressing concerns elsewhere and
the search for Mengele was shelved.
The West Germans also balked at about the same
time, according t He claimed that the
West German Ambassador in Asuncion had queried
him about Mengele's whereabouts, bi
to withhold the information
teve that the Ambassador did not want to be put
in a position in which he would have had to press
Paraguay to extradite the fugitive to West Germany.
Paraguayan Protection. Even more important, in our
view, was the official protection Mengele evidently
enjoyed in Paraguay. Strcessner, who has been in
power since 1954, is of German background, and he
sympathized with the Axis powers during World War
25X1
1
25X1
Il. Moreover, according to an unconfirmed rep25X1
from a retired US military officer who lived in
Paraguay in the 1960s and early 1970s, Menge25X1
served on occasion as Strcessner's personal physician.
Strossner agreed only under strong international
pressure to revoke Mengele's Paraguayan citizenship
in 1979.
Mengele reportedly also received considerable h25X1
from the network of prosperous people of German
origin living in Paraguay.' For example, his part25X1
the Asunci n hardware store, according to
as of German descent. The fortif25X1
ranch at which Mengele was staying when the Is25X1
located him belonged to a family of German
background.
Recent Developments
Although the last confirmed sighting of Mengele was
nearly two decades ago in Paraguay, there have been
numerous unsubstantiated reports in recent years. In
January 1982, longtime Nazi hunter Simon
Wiesenthal claimed that Mengele was alive, although
afi3icted with cancer, and was moving between
Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia. Another Nazi
hunter believes Mengele has abandoned Paraguay
and is traveling between Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay.
Others claim to have spotted him at various times in _
Brazil; -Yenezue}a-,-~rg~ntina, and the-United States.
Last August, Mengele was allegedly seen by
informants in the Paraguayan cities of Filadelphia,
Puerto Strcessner, and Pedro Juan Caballero. In mid-
February, aParaguayan exile in Buenos Aires
claimed Mengele was living on a military base in
Laureles, a town to the east of Desmochados in
southwestern Paraguay, where Strcessner has his 25X1
summer home.
Strcessner has been only mildly cooperative in
investigating such rumors. Last November,'in'
response to a request from a delegation led by a
25X1
. 1X1
former member of the US Congress, the President
' The German-origin community includes people whose familiu
began emigrating to Paraguay in the late 19th century and others
who arrived after World War II. According to open sources, some
200,000 Paraguayans out of a total population of 3.6 million are of
German descent.
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25X1
ordered a nationwide manhunt for Mcngclc and
ofTered to allow outsiders to assist Paraguayan police
investigators. Press reports indicate, however, that the
Paraguayan inquiry was halfhearted-Asuncion
announced within days that it had found nothing-
and Stroessner soon reneged on his ofTer to allow non-
Paraguayans to assist his investigators. We believe his
initiative was little more than a gambit aimed at
casing international pressure.
Prospects for Capture
If Mengeie is still alive, we believe his personal
wealth, his connections among Germans in Paraguay
and elsewhere in South America, the porosity of
borders in the region, and the lack of recent confirmed
sightings will hinder efforts to locate and capture him.
Moreover, we see little indication that Strcessner
currently intends to be cooperative. If Mengeie is now
residing in Paraguay, the President would probably
want to avoid the embarrassment of having him found
there. Paraguayan resentment of US human rights
policies will also impede efforts to persuade Asuncion
to help track Mengeie down. We expect that only a
combination of intense international pressure and
economic or political incentives would prompt
Strcessner to cooperate.
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