August 2, 2016 ▸ People, War & Conflict

Episode 114: Joseph Mangele: The Dark Angel of Auschwitz

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the horrible legacy and history of Dr. Joseph Mengele, the Angel of Death. Mengele was of course the monster behind the terrible experiments done at the Auschwitz Concentration camp, but many people don’t know he wasn’t even a medical doctor. Nope, he was a doctor of anthropology who specialized in genetic traits (something perfect for Nazi dreams of eugenics and the master Aryan Race). Originally a war hero for the German Army and an SS officer, Mengele was highly decorated before he was wounded on the Russian Front in 1943 and assigned to Auschwitz for the remainder of World War Two.

While there, he gained a reputation as being a calculating, cold-hearted killer. He spent his days off on “The Ramp” where Jews and Gypsies got off train cars. Mengele was said to be like a music conductor, sending people to the right or the left—death or hard labor. But his special interest was in genetic anomalies. Twins, dwarfs, giants, people with different colored eyes, anyone born with a genetic mutation met his evil gaze.

He mostly experimented with twins since they had a built-in scientific control of having someone with almost identical genes. What twisted experiments did he conduct? You’ll have to listen in; talking about them once was bad enough—I don’t want to relive it by typing it all here because they are BAD! What strange historical fluke allowed him to escape post-war prison and the infamous Nuremberg Trials? How did he avoid the Mossad intelligence agency for decades? Where did he flee, and how did he eventually die? His story is as atrocious as it is interesting. Listen, laugh, learn. Note that we have some tacky jokes on this one due to subject matter, so get over that before you start…