What surprised me most about this book was how normal and charming Dr. Mengele often appeared to be….even while he stood on the platform as the transport trains brought Jews to Auschwitz and he made his selections, quickly determining if a person were to live or die immediately in the crematorium.
The book alternates a narrative of Mengele's life with remembrances of surviving twins, most now 70s or 80s.
The husband of one of the authors is Alex Dekel. Though not a twin he was selected by Mengele, probably for "his Aryan good looks and his fluency in German." Alex says of Mengele:
"I have never accepted the fact the Mengele himself believed he was doing serious medical work--not from the slipshod way he went about it. He was only exercising his power…major surgeries were performed without anesthesia. Once I witnessed a stomach operation--Mengele was removing pieces from the stomach, but without anesthesia. Another time, it was a heart that was removed, again, without anesthesia. It was horrifying. Mengele was a doctor who became mad because of the power he was given. Nobody every questioned him--why did this one die? why did that one perish? The patients did not count. He professed to do what he did in the name of science, but it was a madness on his part."
What was interesting is how Mengele lived in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay for many years, much of that time, inexplicably, openly. When Eichmann was captured in May of 1960 and subsequently executed, there was a resurgence both of anti-Semitism and renewed efforts to track down aging Nazis who so far had lived free. Mengele's life became more difficult, less comfortable.
Subsequent to liberation, the survivors' tried to redefine their lives, as they search for lost family members and wander around Europe, as they decide eventually where to live and whom to marry, as they have children, as they struggle under the weight of their experiences. Mengele, too, is estranged from his family, especially grieved by the absence of his beloved and only son Rolf (who for years believed Mengele was his uncle). He flees Germany but never stops seeking validation, always insisting he was a man of science, always unrepentant, always believing in the Third Reich….
Mengele had a brother, Alois, and "the townspeople of Gunzburg say that over the years, [Alois] became increasingly disturbed by the persistent stories about Josef's cruelty and sadism at Auschwitz. Alois evidently told Josef he had serious misgivings about what he had done during the war. According to the mayor of Gunzburg, [Alois] even chose to do his own research, going as far as to seek out witnesses who could corroborate his brother's version of events. But the mere fact that a family member would have doubts about his distressed Mengele terribly."
How to reconcile the distress Mengele felt about his brother's loss of faith in him and the lack of distress he had for his part in the Holocaust.
How can we ever understand…
"There was one little boy of exceptional beauty who was Mengele's favorite companion as he made his daily rounds at the Gypsy camp. What a striking pair they made--the tall, graceful doctor and the dark, delicate child who barely came up to his knees. Mengele had him dressed all in white, so that the boy looked strangely regal. Sometimes he would ask the little boy to perform a jig or sing a melody Afterward, Mengele would lean over and hug him, and ply him with chocolates and candies….Toward the end of that terrible night, when nearly all the Gypsies had been slaughtered, Mengele went to get the boy who had been his little mascot. Hand in hand, they walked around the camp, as they had done for so many months. Then Mengele took the child to the gas chamber and showed him the way inside. He obediently climbed in."
The author writes that the "bizarre, mysterious bond forged between Mengele and 'his' twins at Auschwitz remained long after they parted company. However hard they tried, none could banish the memories of the handsome young doctor who had tortured and, they thought, loved them." This is a provocative and terrifying statement.
There is an organization begun by Eva and Miriam Mozes, twin sisters who survived, with the acronym CANDLES which is Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Laboratory Experiments Survivors.
Miriam returns to Auschwitz: "Oddly enough, I felt strangely free at Auschwitz. At last, I had found my mother's resting place. I could speak to my mother here. It was the only place in the world I felt close to her. Our liberation had happened in 1945, but I felt personally liberated for the first time in 1985. I felt I could stop looking for my mother, I knew I had found her resting place. "
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