U.S. TO HELP IN WIDE SEARCH FOR 'ANGEL OF DEATH'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200053-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: February 7, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200053-5
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ARTICLE APPEARM
CN PACE -
WASHINGTON TIMES
7 February 1985
U.S. to help in wide search for
`Angel of Death'
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Attorney General William French
Smith said yesterday he has ordered a
full-scale investigation into the
whereabouts of Josef Mengele, the
"Angel of Death" doctor in the Nazi-run
Auschwitz concentration camp.
Saying the effort will be carried out by
the department's Office of Special Inves-
tigations, Mr. Smith said, "We will use the
effective techniques which OSI has used
in the past to trace and locate Nazi war
criminals.
"The investigation will seek to compile
all credible evidence on the current
whereabouts of Mengele as well as infor-
mation concerning his movements in
occupied Germany and his suspected
flight to South America;' said a statement
issued by the department.
It said the probe also will seek to deter-
mine the "credibility of reports" that
Mengele has visited the United States in
the past.
"The Office of Special Investigations
has excellent rapport with other con-
cerned agencies and countries, and we
car. expect an authoritative report from
them on the past and current
whereabouts of Dr. Mengele," Mr. Smith
said in his statement.
A physician and former major in the
Nazi secret police, Mengele is wanted by
the West German government on murder
charges. Among his alleged crimes were
experiments on twins and the gassing
and cremation of prisoners at the
Auschwitz camp, where an estimated 4
million Jews and others were killed.
He would be 73 if still alive. He was
reportedly last seen in Paraguay in the
1970s.
Last month, a Jewish group said it had
obtained recently declassified doc-
uments indicating that Mengele may
have been arrested and freed by U.S.
military forces in Austria in 1947.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based
center for Holocaust studies, said in New
York that the two documents were
obtained two months ago under the Free-
dom of Information Act. He said the cen-
ter plans to sue for access to four other
documents withheld by the Army on the
grounds of national security.
The Pentagon said at the time that it
could not confirm the report.
"None of the documents indicate any
American units had any ccntact or cap-
tured the doctor after the war," said
Defen a Department spokesman
Michael Burch.
Mr. ;Smith's announcement came fol-
lowing the conclusion of a three-day
mock trial of Mengele in Israel - the
central event in a meeting of Auschwitz
survivors celebrating the 40th anniver-
sary of the liberation of the camp, which
is in Poland.
Testimony ended yesterday with the
presiding panel calling for Mengele's
arrest on charges of crimes against
humanity by any "state willing to try him
under its laws"
A statement read by panel member
Telford Taylor, who was the chief U.S.
prosecutor in the 1946 Nuremberg war
crimes trials, accused Mengele of "acts
of brutality against the bodies and souls"
of Auschwitz inmates.
Isser Harel, a former Israeli intelli-
gence chief who caught Nazi war
criminal Adolf Eichmann. said Israel
considered a commando raid to capture
Mengele after he eluded Israeli agents in
a posh Buenos Aires suburb.
Mr. Harel made the revelation in the
mock trial held by Jews who survived
Mengele's experimentation on twins and
dwarfs at Auschwitz in his quest for a
race of genetically superior Germans.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404200053-5