Switzerland Releases File On Nazi Doctor Josef Mengele

Swiss federal intelligence has published a 200-page dossier on Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, the German doctor known for conducting experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz.

The Swiss authorities released the file on Thursday, saying it was compiled by a predecessor unit to today’s federal intelligence services and later transferred to the Federal Archives in 2001. The dossier has been requested for years by historians seeking to determine whether Mengele spent time in Switzerland while evading investigators after the Second World War.

Mengele’s Auschwitz Role

During the war, Mengele served at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. The camp led to the deaths of about 1.1 million people, including roughly one million Jews.

Mengele became notorious for medical experiments carried out on inmates, including children, which were conducted under the pretext of scientific research.

Postwar Escape And International Pursuit

After the war, Mengele obtained a Red Cross travel document using a false identity, which helped him leave Europe. He then went into hiding in Latin America as he was pursued internationally for his crimes. He died in 1979 after drowning while swimming off the coast of Brazil.

Documents released by Swiss authorities include material provided to police suggesting that Mengele may have returned to Switzerland after initially fleeing Germany, or that he may have been preparing to enter the country under another assumed name, according to German news agency dpa.

File Opened After Legal Challenge

Swiss authorities had previously said the documents should remain sealed until 2071, citing security reasons and the need to protect people named in the material. They also argued that releasing the full content could affect the safety of individuals mentioned in the records.

A historian, Gérard Wettstein, challenged the restrictions and won access to the file through proceedings before the Federal Administrative Court. After that ruling, sections of the dossier were made available online, with some parts redacted to protect sources and third parties’ personal data, the authorities said.

The dossier itself was assembled by the police service of Switzerland’s federal prosecutor’s office, described as a predecessor of the federal intelligence services. It was later passed to the Federal Archives in 2001, where it was kept under the secrecy framework that kept it closed for decades.

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11 September 2026

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