THIS IS THE YEAR WE MUST GET MENGELE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6
VVIM r 1rr!A D
*1 F ._ l
Topic HUNTING NAZIS
Rabbi Marvin Hier,
46, is dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los
Angeles, which has called
for an intensified search
for Nazi war criminal Jo-
sef Mengele. Hier, who
founded Yeshiva Univer-
sity of Los Angeles and
co-wrote and co-pro-
duced the Academy
Award-winning docu-
mentary Genocide, was
interviewed by USA TO-
DAY's Gregory Katz
USA TODAY
1 ApH11; 1985
This isthe year we
must get Mengele
USA TODAY: Do you believe the United States aovern-
meat
i HIER: We do not know all there is to know about the U.S.
Sud&D-
connection that's for sure. Proof of this is the fact
ly the CIA has documents. There La many skeletons in tho
conducting intelligence per World War IT, What we know
run2s. So it certainly wouldn't be far fetched to amume that
they had some use for Mengele.
USA TODAY: What are some of the leads you're following
to find Mengele?
HIER: One trail that unfortunately is cold now because the
person died is the Otto Skorzeny trail. Skorzeny was Hitler's
commando and, after the
war, I believe he was work-
ing for the United States. He
was jailed after the war and
his escape is suspicious -
people dressed in U.S. uni-
, forms got him out. Two
years later, he came back to
Germany, the place he es-
caped from. It's just not logi-
cal..
USA TODAY; And y
believe he;was connected to Mengele?
HIER: Skorzeny had tremendous clout. After he came back
to Germany in 1948, he stayed for nine months in Bavaria. Jo-
seph Mengele lived in Bavaria at that time, before he is be-
lieved to have left for South America, between 1949 to 1951. Spain,
and Mengele to Argentina. don't really know. Bu- to t Skorrzeny had
set up Spain as his headquarters.
USA TODAY: Why would the USA have anything to do
with Skorzeny?
HIER: Skorzeny had an assignment to help fight commu-
nism. He was useful to the United States in that respect. The
question is whether there was a quid pro quo: "AS long as You
do our work, we'll let you carry on your little Nazi work on the
side." Some say Skorzeny ran the escape routes that got Men-
gele and Adolf Eichmann out. If the USA knew all of his activi-
ties, because they were shadowing him around hthe e was getting
, hey
would even know the names of the people that
out, and that implicates them very deeply. That has never
been proven, but it is a trail that is really worth a thorough
investigation because it might lead to the conclusion that the
United States knew everything Skorzeny was doing - and
didn't act.
USA TODAY: Is it possible then, that U.S. officials at times
knew where Mengele was?
HIER: Yes, they could have pinpointed where Mengele was
in a second, but it wasn't in their interest to do so. They looked
the other way, and that is`an indictment That's a very strong
indictment
USA TODAY: What are some active leads that may shed
light on Mengele's whereabouts now?
HIER: There is a man named Ricardo Rief Henstahl prhfessor
jail in Germany on drug trafficking charges.
from Paraguay, an expert in bees. There are two people who
claim that Riefenstahl told them on two occasions that Men- '
gele had stayed with him in 1979, 1980, 1981. Riefenstahl de-
nies it, but if it could be substantiated that President is lying,
it would also show that Paraguayan
ner lied when he said that Mengele hasn't been seen there.
You can't live that openly in Paraguay, file official pa-
pers, and not be known to the secret police. USA TODAY: What else have you got?
HIER: There are tips that come in every day that
have to be analyzed, and a lot of them are a waste of
time. But some turn up something The most important
thing in the Mengele case, in the last 35 years is that he
has always been the property of Nazi hunters. Today
he's the property of the world, of the U.S. government,
because the U.S. government has entered the case. I
think there is a tremendous feeling out there that this is
the year we've got to get Mengele, and that has been
brought about by the USA's involvement in the case.
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6
USA TODAY: How did the U.S. government get in-
volved?
IiiER This was bront}t about by the Gorby docu
me& which shows that Mengele may have,been held
in aUS. Army prison camp but let go. Without the
Gorby document, the United States wouldn't have had
a reason to get in. Now, the United States has assigned
teams and teams of people to look at the documents. I
hope they do the right thing
USA TODAY: How many governments are active-
ly looking for him?
HIER: The truth is, it's one thing for attorneys to look
for him, and it's another thing for counterintelligence cold. Nobody was
agents.
filed was
extradition requests,
here. The West Germans the
there.
posted rewards, but they never answered one question:
How many counterintelligence agents in the field do
you have looking for Mengele 24 hours a day, seven
days a week? None. Absolutely none.
USA TODAY: How about Israel's efforts?
HIER: The same with Israel. They don't want to stick
their neck out alone. Everybody is looking for someone
else to do it. I happen to know off the record - no, you
can be on the record, but I just won't tell you my source
- that the Israelis discussed with Washington a short
while ago the establishment of a world arrest order...
USA TODAY: What's the value of a world arrest
order?_ . _. , _
HIER: It seems to me that a world arrest order may
be an instrument of legality so that the whole world
should know it's legal to grab Mengele, whether you
ask the local government or not.
USA TODAY: In other words, a world arrest order
would ve you or mete ct on to take
someone like en e e Into cult
HIER: Yes. Or the Massed Israel's Secret. Service:
The fact that the wou as o our overn nt
in alit be an in ca on that there is new talk of forming
sus a team. e s ing Kepi; es we belie a he is in
the idea to netrate the cover. It's like
11 rig a piece o w - w enever apiece of wood is
lifted, he's got to run. If the Riefenstahl thing is true,
Mengele would be in trouble because he would have to
leave all of these people he knew. When he leaves
them and they have no more use for him, and vice
versa, they might talk.
USA TODAY: Let's say Mengele is somewhere In
Paraguay, living on a large hacienda surrounded by
a barbed wire fence with 20 private guards with sub-
machine guns patrolling the perimeter. What can
anyone do?
HIER: We might begin a campaign of a different
kind. There's a reward worth millions. I don't know if
the people of Paraguay fully know that. The question 'ls-
filtering that information all the way down. Then we
prefer to send somebody down - an undercover One g
son, as opposed to someone that goes openly.
is to get one of his military people who knows the infor-
mation to squeal for the reward and to give credible
evidence so that a commando operation can take
place.
USA TODAY: Does anyone really know where
Mengele actually is?
HIER: We do not know where Mengele is, except for
the fact that the latest information is that he returned
to Paraguay in December, 1984, after a short visit to
Bolivia. That's the latest information we have. We do
not know where he is now. If we did, we would make'
sure that a team would try to take him out
USA TODAY: What more can the USA do?
ER: I think President Reagan should make apb-
0--M-Fn-ra- Nat would send-n sit-
nal to the entire world and scare the h I of -
is order-
t h
e
uay wou or the president to say tha
lne the CIA w mtake t .e rapture of Men?o1P a trip
priority. Instead the case re mains the property of the
Justice Department. There is no indication that coun-
terintelli2ence is involved. So It is in the hens of the
Justice Department Office .of Special Invests do
ere a veryg~orr~an la on ev have an adml
ra a -record to the USA but thpy're not an ntelliQence
agency overseas.
USA TODAY: What can you and the center do?
HIER: Now our yob is to control the Information so
that every time the a is an appearance that the _ en-
f
I
n
ox-
ele case is dying we can resurrect it with new
we have, because if you give it all out at one time. the
president to stay on the case. That's our objective. Next
hot that the president has to tell the CIA to t involved.
That's what we wan -.000mo
The "Angel of Death'
Born to a wealthy Bavarian family 74 years ago,
Nazi "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele joined Hitler's
elite S.S. guard in 1939 and was made chief doctor at
the Auschwitz death camp in 1943.
While at Auschwitz, Megele reportedly sent more
than 400,000 Jews to their deaths. He also is ac-
cused of conducting sadistic medical experiments
that killed and maimed countless prisoners.
After Hitler fell, Mengele returned to Bavaria, then
fled to Argentina in 1949, using the alias Helmut Gre-
gor. He stayed there until Juan Peron who wel-
comed Nazis - was overthrown in 1955.
Mengele then went to Paraguay, where he ob-
tained citizenship in 1959. He lived openly there for
some years before going back underground. Au-
thorities in West Germany, Israel, and the USA are
looking for him, but hard information is scarce.
Recently declassified CIA documents s! nnast that
Men ele is somewhere in South America, may have
had a face lift, and may involved in international
drua trafficking.
Private groups have offered $2.3 million in reward
money, and Sen. Edward Kennedy wants the U.S.
government to add $1 million to the bounty.
Source: USA TODAY research
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200016-6