Josef Mengele (1911-1979?), also known as the “Angel of Death,” was a German physician who promoted the Nazi racial ideology. Mengele was appointed chief doctor of Auschwitz by Heinrich Himmler in 1943. In that capacity, Mengele was often the first man encountered by people arriving at Auschwitz. A point of his finger would determine who was kept alive for medical experimentation and slave labor, and who was sent directly to the gas chambers. Mengele also conducted a series of questionably scientific medical experiments on disabled inmates and twin children. Through these experiments, he tried to discover a means of increasing German fertility and creating a perfect Aryan race. Following the war, Mengele fled to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He managed to elude capture, and is believed to have drowned in a swimming accident in Brazil in 1979.
