DEKEL, LUCETTE MATALON LAGNADO SHEILA COHN

by CHILDREN OF THE FLAMES

  She stumbled on a newspaper containing a picture of someone with a striking resemblance to her house guest. Mrs. Stammer recalled that when she confronted him with the photographs,

  “Hochbichler” turned white and quickly left the room. Later that day, he returned and admitted that he was the notorious Dr. Mengele of Auschwitz.

  PETER SOMOGYL: When I first met my wife, she immediately noticed the number tattooed on my arm. “Were you in Auschwitz?” she asked me. I didn’t answer her. I didn’t want to talk about it.

  Her father was also a camp survivor, and he had a number on his arm as well. She knew what it meant. I brushed her off, and we both decided we didn’t like each other very much, that first date.

  But we went out again with another couple a few weeks later. It was to see the opera Don Giovanni. We realized we both liked classical music.

  Even though she was ten years younger than I, she was very mature-perhaps because of what happened to her father.

  Nevertheless, I continued to refuse to talk about the war with her.

  Once, her father asked me about my experiences at Auschwitz, but I brushed him off as well.

  It was a short courtship. We had met in August, we got engaged in December, we married the following June. I wanted to settle down.

  I had moved around too much from place to place.

  After our honeymoon, when we returned to our new apartment, my wife said to me,

  “Now, will you tell me, please, about your past?

  I want to know what happened.”

  And so I told her in a nutshell about my experiences as a Mengele twin at Auschwitz. But only in a nutshell.

  We had been married two weeks. We were starting our new life together.

  I said to my wife,

  “I have told you now what happened to me. Please don’t ask me about that ever again. I never want to discuss it again.”

  Afterward, Mengele refused to talk about his past with the Stammers.

  According to Gitta, he didn’t even like to mention the Second World War. Intensely paranoid after his secret was out, Mengele viewed any unknown visitors to the farm with suspicion. He was always asking her about the guests, who they were and what they wanted.

  Ironically, visitors to the Stammer farm who met

  “Senor Pedro” tended to be charmed by him. Mengele was exceedingly polite to strangers, and, when he felt he could trust a person, friendly and expansive.

  Gitta, who endured his constant harping in private, was mystified. It seemed to her that Josef Mengele had two sides, “one for strangers, and the other when he did not need to dissimulate.”

  HEDVAH AND LEAH STERN: We are like actresses. Both of us hide our true feelings. On the outside, we are laughing and smiling, but inside, everything is rotten and dark, and will remain so until the end of our lives.

  To new acquaintances, Mengele was the lovable Beppo, a sunny boy grown into a delightful if somewhat eccentric old man. Once the guests were gone, he behaved like a tyrant, given to cursing fits and temper tantrums. He was furious if he didn’t get his way. Gitta perceived the fundamental split in Mengele’s personality. She saw very clearly the duality, and it frightened and puzzled her. She was unable to fit the “twin” sides of Josef Mengele together. What she didn’t know was that Mengele had always been like this. At Auschwitz, he would smile and act kindly, then fly into a rage at the slightest provocation.

  And here in Brazil, he had lost all of his power and none of his madness.

  Yet, because Mengele made such a good impression on visitors, the Stammers had a hard time convincing their friends how irrational their dapper house guest really was. Later, they would recall how they would agonize over the behavior of this strange old man, who seemed both to yearn for their friendship and to go out of his way to torment, insult, and abuse them.

  The Stammers were coming to realize that they were stuck with their very difficult house guest. They couldn’t get rid of Mengele, nor could they persuade him to behave in a more cooperative manner.

  Whenever the Stammers complained and suggested a parting of the ways, Gerhard would arrive to deliver a stern lecture on what an “honor” it was to lodge the famed SS doctor. When that approach ceased to work, Gerhard resorted to threats. He suggested harm might befall them and their children if they dared to throw Mengele out of their home.

  Eventually, even threats stopped working, and sometime in 1962 the Mengele family learned of the Stammers’ unhappiness with their living situation. They quickly dispatched their best factotum, Hans Sedlmeier, who still enjoyed a top position in the firm, to smooth matters over. Clearly, the family wanted to continue the current arrangement. It was inexpensive, and they didn’t have to worry about Josefs safety.

  In Brazil, Sedlmeier listened sympathetically to the Stammers’ complaints. Then, believing there was only one way to handle the distraught Hungarians, he offered them more money. Sure enough, the relationship was salvaged, at least for the time being. After Sedlmeier’s visit, life settled down on the farm. Mengele continued to work on his memoirs. Progress was slow, perhaps because Mengele, sensing his future was bleak, preferred to linger over the past: He devoted scores of pages to describing his birth.

  But even as Mengele quibbled with Gitta Stammer over the servants, or agonized about what word to use in his “memoirs,” a storm was brewing in Germany. During the three years spent preparing for the Frankfurt trials that got under way in 1964, prosecutors had become convinced of the enormity of Mengele’s crimes. The German government was prompted to intensify its search for him. Perhaps the most dramatic example of Germany’s dedication to the hunt was their decision to have their ambassador to Paraguay intercede. In February 1964, Ambassador Eckart Briest requested an audience with President Stroessner. In a rare display of diplomatic passion, he demanded that Paraguay turn over the infamous death-camp doctor. Stroessner was so infuriated, he threw the ambassador out of the country, creating a minor diplomatic crisis.

  Because of his close ties to Nazis such as Rudel and Von Eckstein, the Paraguayan strongman was in a position to know-or find out-Mengele’s whereabouts. And because foreign citizens were watched very closely, Stroessner must have had available precise knowledge of Mengele’s trips in and out of Paraguay. But Stroessner was unwilling to betray a Nazi.

  The Germans were determined that he be brought to book. But even without Mengele at the stand, this trial yielded ample testimony about his conduct at Auschwitz. The revelations by former inmates who had worked with Mengele elicited headlines-the first time since the end of the war that Mengele had received so much notice in his own country.

  Even in his own Deutschland, Mengele was now vilified, an object of loathing.

  At the trial, an Israeli doctor named Mauritius Brenner told the German court how his twin children had been put to death by Mengele because they were not identical. His story was confirmed by the Auschwitz pharmacist, Viktor Capesius. Before a horrified court, Capesius recalled bringing the Brenner twins to Mengele, who was in an irritable mood. On that day, Mengele didn’t want to be bothered with any fraternal genetic specimens. “I have no time now,” said the Angel of Death, after throwing a glance at the bewildered children. They were promptly taken away to be gassed. Other witnesses described Mengele’s selections, his affinity for experimenting on cripples, dwarfs, and, above all, twins.

  Germany persisted in its efforts to find the fugitive, and offered a small reward for Mengele’s capture. Fritz Bauer, the prosecutor who had helped Israel find Eichmann, made headlines when he alleged that Mengele had been spotted in Asuncion in the company of Martin Bormann.

  Bauer insisted that Bormann, who was supposed to have died in Hitler’s bunker in 1945, was in fact alive and well in South America. Bauer alleged that Hitler’s most trusted assistant was good friends with the Auschwitz doctor.

  But as German authorities searched far and wide for clues that might lead them to Mengele, they seem to have overlooked connections muc
h closer to home: Hermann Langbein, who had forced Germany to reopen its Mengele investigation in the late 1950s, was involved in a new battle.

  Langbein hoped to persuade the University of Munich as well as the University of Frankfurt to revoke the degrees and doctor’s license they had once bestowed on Mengele.

  In the spirit of the Frankfurt trials, both institutions seemed receptive to Langbein’s demands. The man who had killed hundreds of thousands of people certainly did not deserve the title of “doctor.”

  The University of Frankfurt, embarrassed about its past as a Nazi academic haven, promptly agreed. The University of Munich said it would follow Frankfurt’s cue.

  But even as Frankfurt prepared to revoke Mengele’s degree, Martha-still legally his wife, even though they were separated launched a formal protest. The battle pitted the universities against a barrage of tough, highly paid Mengele family lawyers. In retrospect, it seems probable that the family was being egged on by Mengele himself, that Martha’s prominent role was due to pressure from her estranged husband.

  Incredibly, however, German authorities never thought to investigate Martha or the rest of the family at this time, and to demand to know Mengele’s whereabouts.

  Indeed, although the Mengele family adopted the party line after the war that Josef was missing or dead, they came to realize there was no need to continue the pretense. Until the Frankfurt trials in the early 1 960s, postwar Germany had not the slightest interest in finding, let alone trying, the Auschwitz doctor for war crimes. In a way, the mysterious Dr. Mengele was not so elusive after all, at least, not for many years. The townspeople of Gunzburg knew that their Beppo was alive and well and living in South America. They knew of his divorce from Irene, and his bizarre marriage to Martha, and they delighted in gossiping about that union when it, too, failed. But no one was especially troubled by the knowledge that the infamous war criminal was still at large. None felt a need to come forward and tell all. More important, no government authorities-not the Germans, not the Israelis, not even the Americans-had ever bothered to question them closely until the mid-1980s, and by then it was too late.

  Gently sidestepping the question of whether the aggrieved party was dead or alive, Martha and the family lawyers kept doggedly appealing the Case of the Diplomas. They argued Mengele’s degrees couldn’t be repealed because they had been granted before the wa rand hence, before Mengele had committed his alleged crimes. But the University of Frankfurt refused to budge, and ultimately it prevailed.

  The loss of his credentials must have been unbearable to the exiled Nazi. He could no longer harbor any illusions about returning to his homeland and his former life. Never again could he mention his prized doctorate, never could he try to assume a position in academia, his lifelong dream. Mengele’s degrees were the last remaining testament of his former greatness, a reminder of his life before all went awry.

  MOSHE OFFER: After I left Blumenthal for the second time, I went back to school and resolved to change my life.

  I decided to become a chemist. I worked very hard at my studies.

  I also got married again, to an Iraqi woman. I was anxious to have a real home. We settled down and had children very quickly. We had five daughters, one after the other, and at last the son I had always wanted. I named him

  “Shai,” which means “gift” in Hebrew.

  I got my break when I was offered a job in a film laboratory in Tel Aviv. This laboratory made photo-developing film.

  I was still very inexperienced, but this elderly German professor who worked there took me under his wing. He ran the laboratory, and he was a leading expert in his field. He taught me day and night. He gave me hundreds of pages of notes and formulas to study.

  But this professor turned out to be corrupt. He was stealing silver used to make the film. The owners of the laboratory found out about it. They let him steal and steal and steal, until they built a case against him. One day, detectives came in, and they caught him with six kilos of silver.

  They fired him and gave me his position. I was placed in charge of the laboratory. A lot of people worked under me. And people all over the country asked me for advice. I was an expert, after all the old German had taught me everything he knew.

  Because of my expertise, I became known throughout Israel. I got a lot of job offers. One day, Israeli television offered me a job. They offered me a lot of money. And so I left the laboratory to work for them.

  JUDITH YAGUDAH: After years of struggle, my husband decided to start his own business.

  My uncle helped us buy an apartment for my mother in the same building.

  She lived on the first floor, and we lived on the third floor. But at least we lived on our own. It was wonderful.

  I helped my husband a lot in his new business, an electronics company.

  I encouraged him. I would even type letters for him, because he had nothing then, neither a secretary nor his own office. And little by little, he became successful. Our lives started to improve. We were even able to buy our own house.

  We left my mother in the apartment in Netanya, and we moved to another town. I wanted to be free of her influence. I didn’t want to live in the past.

  With the Frankfurt trials, Germany atoned for its sins before the rest of the world. Once the proceedings were concluded, the Germans never launched as intensive a hunt for Mengele-or any other war criminal-again. As Mengele himself pointed out, many prominent Nazis continued to be rehabilitated, and resumed positions of importance.

  His old mentor, Verschuer, retired from the University of Monster in 1965 after a decade of honors and high praise. He had succeeded in building one of the largest genetics institutes in West Germany.

  When he spoke publicly on the subject of the Nazi era, he managed to sound as if he had only been an innocent bystander.

  While Verschuer relished the glittering prizes heaped on him, his former protege spent sleepless nights working on his memoirs. He also composed long letters to his family in Germany, as if to make sure they did not forget him. He was especially upset when his kinfolk failed even to acknowledge his birthday. When he turned sixty, he noted bitterly that Karl Heinz was the only one to send him a birthday card.

  PETER SOMOGYL: Every year on December 16, I would remember my dead sister’s birthday.

  I would think to myself

  “Now, she would be this old.” I pictured what she would have been like if she had survived Auschwitz. I would imagine what would have happened if she were still alive, if we still had our family intact. But I didn’t tell anyone my thoughts, not even my wife.

  Mengele’s greatest source of distress came from Alois, once his favorite younger brother. In the postwar years, Lolo had worked very hard to build up the factory. The natural heir to Karl Sr Lolo successfully expanded the family empire. In the process, he also earned the reputation of being an exceptionally kind, fair, and honorable man. Both in and around Gunzburg, Lolo was liked for his personal generosity and admired for his sound business sense.

  At the start of his brother’s exile, Alois had maintained cordial ties with him, even flying out to Argentina to visit. But later, Lolo deliberately sought to distance himself from Josef and barely kept in contact with him. A review of Mengele’s letters to Alois suggest that he gave his older brother a hard time about his allowance, even though there was obviously money to spare. Since Alois controlled the family purse strings, Mengele was placed in the humiliating position of pleading for handouts from his younger brother.

  Publicly, Alois Mengele continued to defend his sibling. But the townspeople of Gunzburg say that over the years, Lolo 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, Lolo 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 h
ave doubts about him distressed Mengele terribly. The letters suggest there was a large rift between the two brothers who had once been inseparable, who had shared a passion for automobiles and pretty women, for swimming parties along the Danube and evenings in the Cafe Mader.

  ZYL THE SAILOR: A few years after the war, I stopped talking with my twin brother. We had always fought as children. We even fought in Auschwitz-and we continued to fight after the camp. There were a million things we didn’t agree on. He didn’t like my wife, for example. He never accepted her.

  Finally, he moved away to America, and I never heard from him again.

  I sent him money, letters-but he never replied. I knew he got them, because I sent them through registered mail. I never got an answer.

  One day, his wife, who comes to Israel frequently, dropped by to see me out of the blue. She said to me,

  “Leave your wife. Come to the States. We shall help you.”

  I told her,

  “Are you mad? You come to me after all these years and you ask me to leave my wife?”

  In America, men do things like that-they leave many wives. What is that song, about buying a one-way ticket? The man who drops everything and leaves. Or the son who promises to keep in touch, and never sends his own parents a postcard? In Israel, family is much more important.

  And even though I was always leaving Israel, I always, always came back.

  MENASHE LORINCZI: My sister and I were very close after the war, but we drifted apart after she got married. Her husband was Hassidic-and she became very religious, too. I was no longer able to talk to her. She adopted all her husband’s ideas.

  We parted even more when she left for America. I wrote her letters-and she never even answered them.

  VERA BLAU: My twin sister is my only surviving relative-and I love her, but with the years I found we had nothing in common.

  When I get depressed, I have a “switch,” and I can turn it off I switch it off and I stop feeling sad.

  But my sister is always thinking about the Holocaust. She lives completely in the past. I can’t bear to see her the way she is now.