DNA Tests Over; Are Bones Mengele’s?

A British scientific team has completed DNA tests that may finally settle a controversy over whether the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele is dead or alive.

Nearly seven years ago, bones identified by a team of renowned pathologists as almost certainly those of the Nazi death camp doctor were unearthed in a Brazilian cemetery. But debate has persisted among Holocaust survivors over whether the discovery was the result of an elaborate hoax designed to end the worldwide hunt for Mengele.

Hans Eberhard Klein, a German government prosecutor in Frankfurt, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he expects to announce the results of the DNA tests next week.

“I can’t comment for now,” he said. “I’ll be glad when it’s over.”

The scientific examination climaxed a two-year effort by Klein to persuade Mengele’s son, Rolf, 48, and Rolf’s mother, Irene Maria Schonbein, 71, to give blood so their genes could be compared with a bone sample taken from the unearthed remains.

The effort was finally successful two months ago.

The tests were performed by Alec J. Jeffreys, a research professor at Britain’s Leicester University who developed DNA fingerprinting in 1985.

DNA, located in human cells, has patterns believed to be unique to every individual, except twins. Called genetic fingerprinting, the process allows a person’s DNA to be “mapped” on film. The chances of two people having the same genetic fingerprint range from one in 200,000 to one in 30 billion, according to Jeffreys.

In the past, DNA testing has been performed on samples of blood, semen, sweat, tissue and hair strands--but not bone.

“It is the first time anybody has attempted bone DNA identification,” said Jeffreys. “We had a lot to learn. It wasn’t a routine test.” The scientists then compared the bone fingerprint from the remains to the blood fingerprint from the woman and her son.

Jeffreys, too, declined to reveal his findings.

If alive, Mengele would be 81. As chief physician at the Auschwitz concentration camp, he supervised the systematic extermination of about 4 million men, women and children, according to war records and survivor accounts.

After the war, with the help of his wealthy industrialist family and a worldwide network of Nazi sympathizers, Mengele escaped to South America where he lived in a number of countries, according to intelligence reports.

The death of the man reported to be Mengele was attributed to accidental drowning.