Hiding Mengele

How a Nazi Network Harbored the Angel of Death

De: Betina Anton

Narrado por: Taylor Harvey

Listen to the international sensation already translated into 9 languages!

A Brazilian journalist’s investigation unearths the story of a network of people responsible for hiding The Angel of Death, the infamous Nazi doctor who fled to South America and escaped justice for over thirty years.

Josef Mengele, known worldwide for unimaginably cruel human experiments and for sending thousands of people to the gas chambers at Auschwitz, was a fugitive in South America for thirty-four years after World War II, sought by the Israeli secret service and Nazi hunters. Hidden for half that time in Brazil, Mengele created his own paradise, a life where he could speak German, maintain his beliefs, his friends, and his connection with the homeland. Never caught, he lived out the rest of his days thanks to a small circle of expatriate Europeans willing to help him.

One such person was Austrian ex-pat Liselotte Bossert, who buried Mengele with false documents to keep his true identity hidden even after his death in 1979. When the world finally discovered where the remains of Josef Mengele were in 1985, kindergarten teacher Liselotte was escorted from the São Paulo school without further explanation to the students. One six-year-old, Betina Anton, could not let this mystery go. Decades later as an experienced journalist, Betina decided to investigate, but when she found Liselotte, she could not imagine how deep this case would take her.

Written in Portuguese and English by the author and based on extensive research—including interviews, unpublished documents, and news coverage from that era—Hiding Mengele is a suspenseful narrative not only haunted by the doctor’s horrific experiments, but also by the motivations driving a community to protect one of the most evil people known to mankind.

©2024 Betina Anton (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

Anton Captures Mengele At Last

To my mind, “Hiding Mengele’s” most compelling revelation is not so much why, how, and by whom he was hidden - although that is interesting. Rather, it is what we learn about the Bad Doktor himself through his interactions with others as well as his personal correspondence and self-reports. Anton challenges us to consider if Mengele was a monster or a human who committed monstrous acts? If the latter is true, is that more unsettling and terrifying? How can one be at once sadistic and sentimental? Opportunist and ogre? Antin does a fine job of researching and providing context for Mengele’s rise, fall, and morbid legacy. Thankfully, she does not patronize the reader with a Holocaust 101 lesson. She expects us to know the basics, and rightfully so. This affords her space to illuminate less familiar aspects of the Holocaust story - still in the service to building a case against Mengele. For example, she covers the murder of the Roma people and even introduces historical figures who are largely unknown and unheralded like the gay German Jewish athlete Fredy Hirsch who was instrumental in bringing a slice of humanity to thousands of children at two concentration camps, including Auschwitz II Birkenau. What I find most personally gratifying, however, and this will not be a surprise, is that Mengele lived in mortal fear for years after the war - deathly afraid of capture. And while this doesn’t amount to anything resembling justice, it is something to savor.