MENGELE: ELUSIVE FOR 40 YEARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200024-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: March 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200024-7
AR11CLL AN Val-a,
USA TODAY
18 March, 1985
LMengele: Elusive for
40 years
Documents, rewards
spur a new interest
By Gregory Katz
USA TODAY
For 40 years he has wan-
dered worldwide, eluding inves-
tigators, bounty hunters, adven-
turers. Seen everywhere and
nowhere, he's believed to be
alive, but may have been dead
for years.
Josef Mengele - Nazi Angel
of Death, Auschwitz death
camp doctor, fiendish experi-
menter accused of killing
400,000 people, most of them
Jews - is the most notorious of
the Hitler men at large.
And now, suddenly, the hunt
heats up. In recent weeks:
^ A Senate Judiciary sub-
committee will hold hearings
on Mengele Tuesday. The gov-
ernment got interested in Men-
gele after the Simon Wiesenthal
Center uncovered once-secret
CIA documents it says prove the
U.S. Army knowingly freed
Mengele from a prisoner camp
after World War II.
^ Anonymous donors added
$1 million to the more than
$300,000 in reward money.
^ The West German govern-
ment appealed to the USA and
12 other nations for help in cap-
turing Mengele.
^ West Germany is investi-
gating whether the German
branch of Mengele's family is
funneling money to him via a
secret Swiss bank account.
^ Canadian investigators be-
gan checking reports Mengele
- using the alias Joseph Menke
- entered Canada in 1962.
Why all this frenzy over an
old man four decades removed
from his crimes?
"This man is the ultimate ter-
rorist of the Western World,"
said Washington lawyer Martin
Mendelsohn. "We want him
alive. It's important so the final
chapter can finally be written."
Nazi hunters believe Gen. Al-
fredo Stroessner, ruler of Para-
guay since 1954, protected Men-
gele for many years.
Paraguay was a logical hid-
ing place: German is the second
language, there's a large Ger-
man colony, and it welcomed
Nazis after the war.
Paraguay denies it knows
Mengele's whereabouts.
But a New York lawyer re-
searching Mengele's life says a
high-ranking Paraguayan colo-
nel, Alejandro von Eckstein, re-
members spending weekends
lounging by a pool with Men-
gele in Paraguay in 1960s.
The lawyer, Gerald Posner,
says Mengele was seen in Brazil
and Chile in the past 18 months.
The pursuit of Mengele by
the U.S. Justice Department,
General Accounting Office and
Army investigators is top secret
And scores of adventurers -
mostly bounty hunters and free-
lance journalists - are hoping
to pick up Mengele's trail in the
remote plains and jungles of
South America.
How fresh is the trail?
Hundreds of sightings have
been reported, most bogus.
"These people make a living
selling Nazi information to gull-
ible journalists," said John Lof-
tus, a former Justice Depart-
ment lawyer. "It's like a cottage
industry."
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200024-7