NAZI GERMANY'S 'ANGEL OF DEATH' IS STILL AT LARGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120065-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 25, 2011
• Sequence Number: 65
• Publication Date: July 18, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/25: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120065-9
SIAI
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE_ F _ / V
Nazi Germany's
`Angel of Death'
Is Still at Large
There is nothing that produces as
much exhilaration and all-around
gratification for me as tracking
down a notorious war criminal and
bringing him to justice.
Several years ago, I found Adolf
Cukers, a brutal Nazi overlord who
had butchered thousands of Jews in
Latvia. He was living quietly on a
lake shore in the Brazilian coun-
tryside.
Not long after I confronted him
there and revealed his whereabouts
to the world, his body was found in
the trunk of a car, with a note pin-
ned to his jacket. The note said sim-
ply, "The Committee that Never
Forgets."
But I failed to find the most no-
torious of the surviving Nazi war
criminals. The real object of my
search was Dr. Josef Mengele, the
"Angel of Death," who consigned an
estimated 2 million Jews to the gas
chambers or the lingering horror of
quack medical experiments at
Auschwitz during World War II.
Over the years, I have continued
the search. I have spoken to wit-
nesses who have seen him. One wit-
ness met him at the home of a Nazi
sympathizer in Venezuela. Another
encountered Mengele at a ski re-
WASHINGTON POST
18 July 1984
sort in Switzerland. Still another
saw him in the south of France.
Apparently, he has traveled un-
der various identities, using forged
passports. His favorite alias, I'm
told, is "Gregory" or "Gregorovich."
His luxurious life style is financed
by members of his family who live
in the Bavarian town of Gunzburg.
Recently, I sent my associate Lu-
cette Lagnado to Israel to seek out
the surviving victims. They remem-
ber Mengele from Auschwitz as an
exquisitely handsome, soft-spoken
man who loved to play German bal-
lads on an old-fashioned, hand-
cranked phonograph.
According to reliable sources, he
has not lost his good looks, and his
manners are still polished. He is
now in his 70s.
Meanwhile, he remains the
world's most wanted fugitive,
sought by at least three govern-
ments and various private groups.
My sources believe he's under the
protection of Paraguay's dictator,
Alfredo Stroessner. At one point, a
CIA document pinpointed his hide-
out as the southern Paraguayan city
of Encarnacion, just across the
Parana River from Argentina.
But I'm told he never stays long
in one spot. He reportedly has holed
up for brief periods with devout
Mennonites in a Paraguayan village
called Philadelphia and with fellow
expatriates in a Nazi colony called
Colonia Dignidad in Chile.
He may now be in a military zone,
protected by a small army of mer-
cenaries. The former head of the Is-
raeli secret service, Issar Hare],
told Lagnado that, in his opinion,
Mengele's security system is so
strong it would take a combat bri-
gade to penetrate it.
For years, Mengele lived openly
in Buenos Aires-his name in the
telephone book-under the wing of
Argentine President Juan Peron. In
1959, West Germany asked for
Mengele's extradition. The Argen-
tines stalled, claiming that their in-
vestigation "disclosed no record" of
Mengele's presence. The Germans
provided more specifics,. and re-
newed their extradition request in
January, 1960.
But because there was no extra-
dition treaty between Argentina
and Germany, the case had to be
submitted to the Argentine solicitor
general. The foreign ministry didn't
do this until June, 1960. By then, it
was too late. A month earlier, Is-
raeli agents had kidnaped Adolf
Eichmann, another Nazi war crim-
inal, on the streets of Buenos Aires.
Not wishing to risk similar "extra-
dition" to Israel, Mengele skipped
to Paraguay. ,
The Paraguayans' official line,
then and now, is that they don't
know where Mengele is. Only a few
weeks ago, they told me they'd be
happy to arrest Mengele if I'd tell
them exactly where to find him.
Some day I may oblige.
Footnote: In a future column, I'll
tell you about Mengele's U.S. con-
nection.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/25: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100120065-9