What is it like to live as a relative of the most hated man in the world? Rolf Mengele, the son of the most brutal sadist in the history of World War II, a man nicknamed "Doctor Death" Josef Mengele, could answer this question.
Parents are not chosen. Many works have been written about the atrocities of Josef Mengele. This is a German doctor who worked in Auschwitz. His name has long become a household name for sadists and monsters. The list of his atrocities makes one's hair stand on end.
He dissected live babies, stitched twins together, sterilized Jews and Gypsies with huge doses of radiation, tried to change the color of the eyes by dripping acid preparations on the pupils of experimental people.
And this is only a small part of the atrocities of this sadist. It seems that everything human is alien to him. But at the same time, in addition to the role of a sadist and fanatic, he also had the role of husband and father. And although it is difficult to present him in this capacity, the fact remains.
Josef Mengele was famous for his sweet smile and suave manners. Not knowing what this man does, one could even consider him charming. The prisoners, however, remembered his cold, expressionless eyes.
But the young Fraulein was hardly so observant. In 1939 he married Irene Shenbein. Five years later, their son Rolf was born - a boy in whose upbringing Mengele did not take part. This marriage was the first for Joseph, but not the only one. In 1958, already in Brazil, he divorced Irena and remarried his brother's widow.
Rolf was born on March 16, 1944, the same day as his fanatical father. Mother, Irena Shenbain, told her son that his dad died in Russia. Little Rolf was surrounded by many peers, whose many relatives died during the Second World War, so this was not surprising for the boy
Mysterious Uncle Fritz: First meeting with his father
When the child was 12 years old, relatives brought him to the Swiss Alps and there they introduced him to an outwardly unremarkable man of average height, with a cleft between his teeth. Rolf was told it was Uncle Fritz. The boy did not attach much importance to this acquaintance.
When Rolf Mengele celebrated his sixteenth birthday, the relatives decided that the guy was already an adult, ready for the truth. It was then that he learned the terrible secret of his family. The mysterious Uncle Fritz turned out to be his own dad. And not just, but by the very “angel of death” that all Israeli intelligence is hunting for. Rolf later recalled that the news that his father was the same doctor from Auschwitz hit him hard. The teenager felt disgusting. mothershe said then: “I would like another father.”
Unrepentant Nazi: Second Encounter
Josef Mengele and Rolf met again in their lives. The second time the meeting was initiated by the son. His mother died, but his soul demanded answers to questions. And he decided to personally ask them to his father.
It should be noted that, according to Rolf himself, both he and his family maintained relations with this fugitive Nazi criminal. He was provided with all possible assistance if he needed to hide from the Israeli or German secret services.
"He was my father and a member of our family," explains Rolf, "I couldn't denounce him. I didn't even consider that possibility. It would be a betrayal of our family."
Rolf decided to see his father, who at that time was already 65 years old. What did he expect from this meeting? Alas, he himself could not answer this question for himself. For a conversation, the son of Josef Mengele flew over the ocean, overcame hundreds of thousands of kilometers - from Germany to Brazil.
What questions did he want to ask his father? What for? Why? Does he repent? What prompted him to do all this? Does he dream of those whom he ruthlessly slaughtered?
Rolf Mengele did not receive answers to his questions. On the ocean shore, he saw a completely satisfied with the life of an unrepentant Nazi. “Personally, I did no harm to anyone” - the father was not joking, he really thought so. Until the end of his days, Josef was devoted to Nazi ideology. The Jews were not people for him in the full sense of the word. It is this inhuman, savage morality that hetried to convey to his son. According to him, the Jews are not like the rest of humanity, they have something abnormal, dangerous, they had to be destroyed. But all was in vain. The son could not share the views of his fascist father, his worldview was terrifying. Whatever he hoped for, flying to this meeting Rolf Mengele, he did not see remorse in his father's eyes.
This was their last conversation. Two years later, Josef Mengele died a natural death, never answering before a human court for his crimes. He had a stroke while swimming in the ocean. Was it worth it for Rolf to betray, albeit such a terrible, but blood-related father to the authorities, or are the bonds of blood sacred? A question he probably wouldn't have answered himself.
Last try
In 1983, Israeli intelligence makes another global attempt to catch the "doctor death". They decide to reach him through Rolf. The Communications Department begins to listen to his phone, the mail is viewed and photographed. For this, a special agent was even introduced, a woman codenamed "Fairy".
Special services have thought of everything to the smallest detail. Rolf was assigned a female secretary, who is actually a first-class agent, his house was searched several times, intercepting any hint of a connection with his father.
Alas, it was done too late. Josef Mengele had been dead for four years by this time.
Son for father
One of the biggest interviews given by Josef Mengele's son was timed to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 2008, after twenty years of silence, 64-year-old Rolf made a publicstatement.
It was then that he said that the Mengele family kept in touch with the fugitive Nazi, that he could not betray his father. He told how relieved he felt when he learned about the death of the latter. And most importantly, instead of his father, his son apologized to the entire Jewish people.
The quiet life of the German bourgeois
Rolf lived the quiet, peaceful life of a German citizen. He did not get into scandals, practically did not communicate with the press, tried to remind the world about himself as little as possible. He married and had three children. He settled in a small town in the south of Germany, chose the speci alty of a pharmacologist-biochemist for himself, and all his life tried to forget what monster he was born of.
