Mengele Ran Business Under His Own Name

Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele ran a business under his own name in Buenos Aires in the 1950s after enlisting the West German Embassy’s help in obtaining his birth certificate from home, Stern magazine said today.

Mengele got the capital for his Argentine chemical company, Fadrofarm, from the prosperous Mengele family in Bavaria, Stern said in an advance copy of its next edition.

Stern also said Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death” at Auschwitz, visited Switzerland in March, 1961, and was identified by police as a wanted Nazi war criminal but was not arrested. He had earlier been reported as also having visited Switzerland in 1956.

Mengele’s company was registered in October, 1957, his eighth year in Argentina after fleeing Europe under a false name in 1949.

Asked for Birth Certificate

“In 1956--there was still no hunt for him from Germany--he asked the West German Embassy in Buenos Aires to get his birth certificate from Guenzburg” where the Mengele family lived in Bavaria, Stern said.

As proof of identity, he brought along the manager of the Mengele family’s farm machinery business, Hans Sedlmeier.

Sedlmeier is under investigation by West German authorities on suspicion of having obstructed justice by providing funds to Mengele who, according to his family and international forensic experts, died in Brazil in 1979.

Citing U.S. intelligence reports, Stern said the Bavarian company was majority shareholder in Mengele’s firm.